XXXVI

LOVED one, though thou shouldst spurn me as a thing Unworthy of affection or regard, Think not alone that vanity may guard Thy spirit from the friend that thou wouldst fling So heedlessly aside. For life may bring Its own swift sorrow, sad, or cold, or hard; Then mayst thou think, perchance, of that young bard, Who came to thee, his song of love to sing! And when thy heart repine thee, if it doth, Take from my own the sorrow thou hast given, Like to a travesty of happiness, Devoured in its fulness by a moth, That eats the leaf from off the tree of Heaven, And leaves the soul of man in loneliness!