“Alas! they had been friends in youth:
\nBut whispering tongues can poison truth;
\nAnd constancy lives in realms above;
\nAnd life is thorny; and youth is vain;
\nAnd to be wroth with one we love,
\nDoth work like madness in the brain;
\n________
\nBut never either found another
\nTo free the hollow heart from paining –
\nThey stood aloof, the scars remaining.
\nLike cliffs which had been rent asunder;
\nA dreary sea now flows between,
\nBut neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder,
\nShall wholly do away, I ween,
\nThe marks of that which once hath been.”
\nColeridge, Christabel<\/p>\n
Fare thee well! and if for ever,
\nStill for ever, fare thee well:
\nEven though unforgiving, never
\n‘Gainst thee shall my heart rebel.<\/p>\n
Would that breast were bared before thee
\nWhere thy head so oft hath lain,
\nWhile that placid sleep came o’er thee
\nWhich thou ne’er canst know again:<\/p>\n
Would that breast, by thee glanced over,
\nEvery inmost thought could show!
\nThen thou wouldst at last discover
\n‘Twas not well to spurn it so.<\/p>\n
Though the world for this commend thee –
\nThough it smile upon the blow,
\nEven its praise must offend thee,
\nFounded on another’s woe:<\/p>\n
Though my many faults defaced me,
\nCould no other arm be found,
\nThan the one which once embraced me,
\nTo inflict a cureless wound?<\/p>\n
Yet, oh yet, thyself deceive not;
\nLove may sink by slow decay,
\nBut by sudden wrench, believe not
\nHearts can thus be torn away:<\/p>\n
Still thine own its life retaineth,
\nStill must mine, though bleeding, beat;
\nAnd the undying thought which paineth
\nIs – that we no more may meet.<\/p>\n
These are words of deeper sorrow
\nThan the wail above the dead;
\nBoth shall live, but every morrow
\nWake us from a widowed bed.<\/p>\n
And when thou wouldst solace gather,
\nWhen our child’s first accents flow,
\nWilt thou teach her to say “Father!”
\nThough his care she must forego?<\/p>\n
When her little hands shall press thee,
\nWhen her lip to thine is pressed,
\nThink of him whose prayer shall bless thee,
\nThink of him thy love had blessed!<\/p>\n
Should her lineaments resemble
\nThose thou never more may’st see,
\nThen thy heart will softly tremble
\nWith a pulse yet true to me.<\/p>\n
All my faults perchance thou knowest,
\nAll my madness none can know;
\nAll my hopes, where’er thou goest,
\nWither, yet with thee they go.<\/p>\n
Every feeling hath been shaken;
\nPride, which not a world could bow,
\nBows to thee – by thee forsaken,
\nEven my soul forsakes me now:<\/p>\n
But ’tis done – all words are idle –
\nWords from me are vainer still;
\nBut the thoughts we cannot bridle
\nForce their way without the will.<\/p>\n
Fare thee well! thus disunited,
\nTorn from every nearer tie.
\nSeared in heart, and lone, and blighted,
\nMore than this I scarce can die.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
“Alas! they had been friends in youth: But whispering tongues can poison truth; And constancy lives in realms above; And life is thorny; and youth is vain; And to be wroth with one we love, Doth work like madness in the brain; ________ But never either found another To free the hollow heart from paining […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4898,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148\/revisions\/4898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}