HAVE you forgot, dear love, that night in May, When, un-reproved, I caught your waist, and set my lips to stray On yours that had no will to say them nay Because you loved? Have you forgot those hours of sun and shine When we went down Love's easy, treacherous flood, where never sign Is set to mark the Shoal of Love's Decline, Where Love shall drown? I have kissed women since and found them kind, As even you, Have drifted down the self-same flood to find The self-same shipwreck: not for them I bind My brows with rue. Their eyes and lips were fair; their kisses set My blood in spate, But, since I loved them only to forget, To you my heart, a Temple of Regret, I consecrate. And you—behind the brave high wall which stands 'Twixt you and care, A wall of gold, shored up by little hands To nursery tunes, and garlanded with strands Of childish hair— Have you forgot, or, sometimes satiate Of calm content, Do you remember still the path, the gate, The orchard and the arbour where our late Glad nights were spent? I put my soul in peril and I pray— But will God meet My prayer?—that in your dreams, to-night, you may Recall those kisses of our distant day, And find them sweet! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CAMPUS SONNET: MAY MORNING by STEPHEN VINCENT BENET THE HILL ABOVE THE MINE by MALCOLM COWLEY PLACE FOR A THIRD by ROBERT FROST ILLUSIONS by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON ON A YOUNG LADY'S SIXTH ANNIVERSARY by KATHERINE MANSFIELD |