XCVII
Reading edition
IN those brief moments when thou wert my own, I drank a poison deadlier to my heart Than that which toucheth every vital part, And causeth man to tremble and to moan Until the seeds of death be fairly sown, And he in palsied attitude doth start To rise, before his spirit shall depart, And utter on this earth its final groan. That poison was love’s undisguised belief That I had found eternal happiness, True freedom from all ill, and true relief From weary waiting and from loneliness. Ah! Cruel fate! Thou gavest but new grief, When I believed that Heaven my life would bless!