Wessex Poems and Other Verses

Yet saw he something in the lives

Of those who'd ceased to live

That rounded them with majesty

Which living failed to give.

For incensed love breathes quick and dies,

When famished love a-lingering lies.

You may prate of your prowess in lusty times,

But as years gnaw inward you blink your bays,

And see too well your crimes!

For winning love we win the risk of losing,

And losing love is as one's life were riven.

If but some vengeful god would call to me

From up the sky, and laugh: "Thou suffering thing,

Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,

That thy love's loss is my hate's profiting!"

I look into my glass,

And viewing wasting skin,

And say, ‘Would God it came to pass

My heart had shrunk as thin!’For then, I, undistrest

By hearts grown cold to me,

Could lonely wait my endless rest

With equanimity.But Time, to make me grieve,

Part steals, lets part abide;

And shakes this fragile frame at eve

With throbbings of noontide.