Admit the ruse to fix and name her chaste With those who sleep the spring through, one and one, Cool nights, when laurel builds up, without haste, Its precise flower, like a pentagon. In her obedient breast, all that ran free You thought to bind, like echoes in a shell. At the year's end, you promised, it would be The unstrung leaves, and not her heart, that fell. So the year broke and vanished on the screen You cast about her; summer went to haws; This, by your leave, is what she should have been. Another man will tell you what she was. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LINES BY CLAUDIA by EMILY JANE BRONTE THE HOMECOMING by THOMAS HARDY THE BAYADERE by FRANCIS SALTUS SALTUS BETH GELERT; OR, THE GRAVE OF THE GREYHOUND by WILLIAM ROBERT SPENCER THE TWO GLASSES by ELLA WHEELER WILCOX THE CRUSADERS' MARCH by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN |