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.

March 4, 1911.