University of Virginia Library

27
FAREWELL

Let me say one latest word,
Let me touch but once your hand,—
It seems that I have erred;—
Ah! I understand.
My darling, 'tis not you
That I blame, the dream you dreamed,
Those eyes of tearful blue,
That were mine, it seemed:
You were dazzled by the praise
I had won, by the fame
That decks my dreary days,
As the gilded frame
That girds a haggard face,
And a withered hand,
Lending a hollow grace:—
Ah! I understand.
But the sudden radiance flits,
And you see across the gloom
The dry old soul that sits
In his dusty room.
I have lived so long with death,
With hereafter and before,
That I breathe the icy breath
Of the further shore.
A ray of gracious light
On my tubes and phials played,
On the lancets keen and bright
Of my savage trade.
Would I prison it? Not I!
Let it wander hence afar;
Let it seek the happy sky,
And its native star.
This is my answer, this:
See, I loose your pitying hand,
I ask no word, no kiss,
And I understand.