I HAVE loved you, oh, how madly!
I have wooed you softly, sadly,
As the changeful years went by;
Yet you kept your haughty distance,
Yet you scorned my brave persistence,
While the long, long years went by.
Now that colder lovers leave you,
Now that Fate and Time bereave you
(For the cruel years will fly),
In your beauty's pale declension
Yon would grace with condescension
The love that touched you never
When your bloom and hopes were high.
Ah! but what if I discover
That too long in antique fashion
I have nursed a fruitless passion,
Whose rage and reign (thank Heaven!)
Are passed at length and over--
That fate hath locked forever love's golden Eden gate?
There's a wrong beyond redressing,
There's a prize not worth possessing,
And a lady's condescension
May come all hour too late!
