If I forget thee! How shall I forget thee?

And wrapped up secretly and laid apartAs something which should not be used to–day,Woke with a pang, and tremulously wanStarted and listened. There in the new mornOf this grey wakening, like a long drowned manBrought back to life, he knew the world forlornBy the dull ache which was in every limb.The ghastly pleasures which had…

He came to die beside the lake.The golden trout leaped up to view,The moorfowl clapped his wings and crew,The swallow brushed him as she flew.He looked upon the glorious sun,His blood dropped slowly on the stone,He loved the life so nearly won,And then he died. The ravens foundA carcase couched upon the ground,They said their…

Thy memories do not grieve thee, and no traceLives of their tears for us who after come.All is forgotten–thy high martyrdom,Thy rage, thy vows, thy vauntings, thy disgrace,With those who died for thee to beat of drum,And those who lived to see thee kingdomless.Indeed thou art a woman in thy mirths,A woman in thy griefs…

Was strangely put, and who, because of thatAnd that he could not read it, died. But a short hourBefore he passed, the woman who stood by,Weeping as once she had wept to see him born,Tired with her watching looked into his faceAnd saw the heavy eyelids dropping downLoaded with sleep. And she, for all her…

Health to our friends, ill hap to those we hate,Even love, that glorious paradisal bird,The woman unattained, whose thought has stirredDesire to its last chord importunate;All shall be ours (so runs the common word)If but our patience lag not on our fate.–O, indigent consoling, even if true!Crumbs for the hungry, who thus fasting liveAnd die…

I must fare on from winter and rough weatherAnd the dark tempests chained within Time’s womb.Southwards I go. Each footstep marks the tombOf a dead pleasure. Melun, Fontainebleau,–How shall I name them with the ghosts that roamIn their deserted streets of long ago?I will not stop to weep. Before me lieLands larger in their purpose,…