WHAT had I been, lost Love, if you had loved me? A woman, smiling as the smiling May, -- As gay of heart as birds that carol gaily Their sweet young songs to usher in the day -- As ardent as the skies that brood and brighten O'er the warm fields in summer's happy prime, -- As tender as the veiling grace that softens The harshest shapes in twilight's tender time. Like the soft dusk I would have veiled your harshness With tendernesses that were not your due, -- Your very faults had blossomed into virtues Had you known how to love me and be true. It had been well for you, -- for me how blessèd! But shall we ask the wind to blow for aye From one same quarter, -- keep at full for ever The white moon smiling in a changeless sky? Change is the law of wind and moon and lover, -- And yet, I think, lost Love, had you been true, Some golden fruits had ripened for your plucking You will not find in gardens that are new. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RETROSPECT by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON THE NIGHT MOTHS by EDWIN MARKHAM SONG OF NATURE by RALPH WALDO EMERSON THE LAST SIGNAL by THOMAS HARDY DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN FOR A MARRIAGE OF SAINT KATHERINE [OR, CATHERINE] by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ON AN ANNIVERSARY by JOHN MILLINGTON SYNGE EVENING by ISABELLA LOCKHART ALDERMAN TO MISS RIGBY, ON HER ATTENDANCE UPON HER MOTHER AT BUXTON by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |