For twenty years hope lingered, unabated,
Though beauty lost its bloom and youth its fire,
Never there came the step for which she waited,
Never the lover of her heart's desire.
Yet who shall weigh what subtle consolation
Solaced the Rani in her lonely sleep;
When her locked arms in love's divine elation
Held him whom, waking, she had failed to keep.
Thus I, who watch the alien planets gleaming
Over the waters of this restless sea,
Drift back to sleep, and ever in my dreaming
Lay your soft hair between the deck and me.
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