Page:Poems Barrett.djvu/283

    Could ye, "We loved her once,"
Say calm of me, sweet friends, when out of sight?
    When hearts of better right
Stand in between me and your happy light?
And when, as flowers kept too long in the shade,
    Ye find my colours fade,
And all that is not love in me, decayed?
    Such words—Ye loved me once!

    Could ye "We loved her once,"
Say cold of me, when further put away
    In earth's sepulchral clay?
When mute the lips which deprecate to-day?—
Not so! not then—least then! when life is shriven,
    And Death's full joy is given,—
Of those who sit and love you up in Heaven,
    Say not, "We loved them once."

    Say never, ye loved once!
God is too near above, the grave, below,
    And all our moments go
Too quickly past our souls, for saying so!
The mysteries of Life and Death avenge
    Affections light of range—
There comes no change to justify that change,
    Whatever comes—Loved once.

    And yet that word of once
Is humanly acceptive! Kings have said,
    Shaking a discrowned head,
"We ruled once,"—idiot tongues, "We once bested,"—
Cripples once danced i' the vines—and bards approved,
    Were once by scornings, moved!
But love strikes one hour—love. Those never loved,
    Who dream that they loved once.