PERHAPS, long hence, when I have passed away, Some other's feature, accent, thought like mine, Will carry you back to what I used to say, And bring some memory of your love's decline. Then you may pause awhile and think, "Poor jade!" And yield a sigh to me -- as gift benign, Not as the tittle of a debt unpaid To one who could to you her all resign -- And thus reflecting, you will never see That your thin thought, in two small words conveyed, Was no such fleeting phantom-thought to me, But the Whole Life wherein my part was played; And you amid its fitful masquerade A Thought -- as I in yours but seem to be. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ROOTS AND LEAVES THEMSELVES ALONE by WALT WHITMAN THE ROSE TREE by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS DANS LA BOHEME by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH TWO SONGS FROM THE PERSIAN: 1 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH CHERRY TREE IN AUTUMN by MARIE DAVIES WARREN BECKNER TO CHILDREN: 1. FAIRY SONG by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |