Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, IF HE HAD KNOWN, by DESBORDES VALMORE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

IF HE HAD KNOWN, by            
First Line: If he had known what soul it was he wounded
Last Line: If I had known?


IF he had known what soul it was he wounded,
Could he have seen the tears wrung from the heart!
Ah, if that heart, where thoughts too much abounded,
To shape its thoughts to words, had kept the art!
To change us now the very power would lack,
Proud of the hopes which he away has thrown,
So great a love he must have rendered back,
If he had known.

If he had known what might have been expected
From a true soul that loving ardour fires,
To mate with his he would have mine selected,
And must have felt the love which he inspires.
My downcast eyes perchance concealed the flame;
Yet through their modest glance was nothing shown?
Such secret well his heart and soul might claim,
If he had known.

If I myself had known to what a power
One yields oneself by gazing on his eyes,
I had not sought him every breathing hour,
But would have borne my days to other skies.
It is too late my life to rearray,
My life, a rapturous hope, deceived and flown.
You, who have robbed my hopes--will you not say,
If I had known?





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