Or ever the knightly years were gone With the old world to the grave, I was a king in Babylon And you were a Christian slave. I saw, I took, I cast you by, I bent and broke your pride. You loved me well, or I heard them lie, But your longing was denied. Surely I knew that by and by You cursed your gods and died. And a myriad suns have set and shone Since then upon the grave Decreed by the king of Babylon To her that had been his Slave. The pride I trampled is now my scathe, For it tramples me again. The old resentment lasts like death, For you love, yet you refrain. I break my heart on your hard unfaith, And I break my heart in vain. Yet not for an hour do I wish undone The deed beyond the grave, When I was a King in Babylon And you were a Virgin Slave. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOWN-HILL ON A BICYCLE by LOUIS UNTERMEYER A THOUGHT by WILLIAM HENRY DAVIES HONEY DRIPPING FROM THE COMB by JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY TORREY PINES by CHARLES GRANGER BLANDEN WASTED FOUNTAINS by ANNE CHARLOTTE LYNCH BOTTA |