AFTER LOVE.

O TO part now, and, parting now,

Never to meet again;

To have done for ever, I and thou,

With joy, and so with pain.

It is too hard, too hard to meet

As friends, and love no more;

Those other meetings were too sweet

That went before.

And I would have, now love it over,

An end to all, an end:

I cannot, having been your lover,

Stoop to become your friend!