Henceforth for each of us remains the world. The gates have closed behind us, we are hurled From the fixed paradise of our content Into an outer world of banishment, And, in this anger of the garden's Lord, His serene angel with the fiery sword Has yet more pitilessly cast us forth, You by the gate that looks upon the North And I by the gate looking on the South. And so the lamentations of your mouth I shall not hear, nor tears for this distress Water my hours' unwatered barrenness. For love is ended, love that was to be Endless; nay, love endures perpetually, But I shall never kiss your lips again, Nor hold your hand, nor feel your arms enchain Body and soul in one extreme embrace, Nor find again the kingdom of your face. For I have lost you, you return no more; And I have lost in you the years before You gathered all my years within the glance Of your supreme and triumphing countenance, And all the years whose desultory flame Shall yet smoke flickeringly after them. Passion has burnt itself clean out for you; I go back empty-hearted, to renew The unprofitable, the vain following Of every vain, unprofitable thing; You, with all seemly wishes satisfied, Go forth to be the most unhappy bride The sun shall shine upon in rich men's halls. Hearken, I hear a voice, a voice that calls; What shall remain for him? sadly it cries: Desolate years, eternal memories. And what for her? it cries, it cries with tears: Eternal memories, desolate years. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DULCE ET DECORUM EST by WILFRED OWEN THE BALLAD OF BOUILLABAISSE by WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY STEADFASTNESS; THE LOVER BESEECHETH HIS MISTRESS by THOMAS WYATT RAMBLE OF THE GODS THROUGH BIRMINGHAM, SELECTION by JAMES BISSET TO THE WORLD by THOMAS CAMPION A LYRIC CALENDAR by RHYS CARPENTER |