I never knew (how could I ever know?)

What your heart did not conceal, but neither

Would reveal, like clouds weighted with cold snow;

And when you left, you left a believer

In what might have been, a dreamer spurned

And jolted from his sleep, wand’ring, lost in fog—

You lingered long! Gone, gone, and then returned—

O, the Bard is wrong: past is not prologue!

Your life’s two great errors, now known to me, errors

No longer are. Breathe free, at last you rest

By my side, a rose bathing in the moor,

A drunken rose wet with Earth’s swollen breast.

My friend, let love our lives overtake

And leave regret in our blissful wake!