Yet did I not, through all those golden days
Spangled with hopes dissolving into rays,
Silently weeping, crying out alone,
Beseech my loveliness to be my own,
Spangled with hopes dissolving into rays,
Silently weeping, crying out alone,
Beseech my loveliness to be my own,
For, my beloved, has it not ever been
My unsought beauty that has come between
Us—though I've prayed for a disfiguring stain
To blot my face, and give it back again.
My unsought beauty that has come between
Us—though I've prayed for a disfiguring stain
To blot my face, and give it back again.
For then, my dearest, as I proudly knew,
Unlovely, wrinkled, I'd belong to you;
There is no watcher for an unlit scene,
Though love be there, where loveliness has been.
Unlovely, wrinkled, I'd belong to you;
There is no watcher for an unlit scene,
Though love be there, where loveliness has been.
Only, dear heart, you would not wait, but went
Before my alien loveliness was spent;
When you had left my beauty died away,
Slowly retreating before night and day.
Before my alien loveliness was spent;
When you had left my beauty died away,
Slowly retreating before night and day.
Sitting without you, old and dim and plain,
Vainly I crave my beauty back again,
Looking about me silent and alone;
Only my ruins still are called my own.
Vainly I crave my beauty back again,
Looking about me silent and alone;
Only my ruins still are called my own.
19
