SO you have wondered at me, -- guessed in vain What the real woman is you know so well? I am a lost illusion. Some strange spell Once made your friend there, with his fine disdain Of fact, conceive me perfect. He would fain (But could not) see me always, as befell His dream to see me, plucking asphodel, In saffron robes, on some celestial plain. All that I was he marred and flung away In quest of what I was not, could not be, -- Lilith, or Helen, or Antigone. Still he may search; but I have had my day, And now the Past is all the part for me That this world's empty stage has left to play. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE KNIGHT'S TOMB by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE ALL THAT'S PAST by WALTER JOHN DE LA MARE ASSAULT by EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY MANASSAS [JULY 21, 1861] by CATHERINE ANNE WARFIELD THE POWER OF MUSIC by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE VEERY'S FLUTE by LUCY BRANCH ALLEN THE PEACE: TO HEAVEN ON A BEETLE by ARISTOPHANES |