ONCE the question was to know Why you came, and why would go, Once it seem to import so That I should approve you; Ay, in lost days dead and dear, When so often you were here, I could hope and I could fear; Now I only love you. Since your hand hath closed the door, In my soul for evermore All is stiller than before; And the end -- who knoweth? You have gone; to spend your breath, Haply, on the fields of death Where the war-fire thundereth And the palm-tree groweth. Waves and fates have rolled between, Things are not that once have been, Changed the actors, changed the scene Where the singer stayeth; If her love hath wrought her woe, E'en to you, who only know That it ever hath been so, Only song betrayeth. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE ROAD TO CHORRERA by ARLO BATES ELEGY: 11. THE BRACELET; UPON THE LOSS OF HIS MISTRESS'S CHAIN by JOHN DONNE TO A. E. HOUSMAN by MARGARET ASH THE KINGS OF THE EAST by KATHARINE LEE BATES PSALM 24 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE AN INVOCATION by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD THE FORSAKEN MAID by RICHARD BROME |