Of the bitter shafts of love That poison human veins Lost Opportunity Excites the cruellest pains. "An hour too late" -- and all We touch and see Turns to a frozen wall Of misery! Like drops of burning rain That ghastly "what might have been" Torments our wretched brain With its litany obscene. And our heart gives one wild cry Against the unchanging law: -- "Let eternity go by, And the past be as before! "Welcome the uttermost harms That hell holds in its power, So I clasp her once in my arms As I might have -- in that hour!" |