Though you have struck me to the bloody core, It is indeed only one scar the more! And I'll not turn from you as at the other strokes, Nor say "Good-bye," as other times I said. The agony still chokes, And still it seems most restful to be dead. But I'll not say "Good-bye" nor turn away, Nor parting lover play. . . . Leave you? Take everything save all -- my heart? I know the scene too well, too well my part! Hot tears and bitterness; and I would go, Go for an hour, a day, a week -- Is bitterness so short called pique? And in the old, old way, without regret I would return to you; And in the old, old way you would forget That ever I had gone, and let Some casual tenderness Be my return's caress; Or in some vague, absorbed distress, Lift up your shadow eyes to mine still wet. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MARY DONNELLY by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM ANOTHER SPRING by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI A LITTLE WHILE by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI FOOTLIGHT MOTIFS: 4. NATALIE ALT by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS ROUNDEL by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS QUATRAIN: FAME by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH STANZAS IN THE MEMORY OF EDWARD QUILLINAN, ESQ. by MATTHEW ARNOLD |