YOU THAT WERE

You that were

Half my life ere life was mine;

You that on my shape the sign

Set of yours;

You that my young lips did kiss

When your kiss summed up my bliss....

Ah, once more

You to kiss were all my bliss!

You whom I

Could forget — strange, could forget

Even for days ( ah, now the fret

Of my grief! );

You who loved me though forgot;

Welcomed still, reproaching not....

Ah, that now

That forgetting were forgot!

You that now

On my shoulder as I go

Put your hand that wounds me so;

You that brush

Yet my lips with that one last

Kiss that bitters all things past....

How shall I

Yet endure that kiss the last?

You that are

Where the feet of my blind grief

Find you not, nor find relief;

You that are

Where my thought flying after you

Broken falls and flies anew,

Now you're gone

My love accusing aches for you.