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Not once in all our days of poignant love,

Did I a single instant give to thee

My undivided being wholly free.

Not all thy potent passion could remove

The barrier that loomed between to prove

The full supreme surrendering of me.

Oh, I was beaten, helpless utterly

Against the shadow-fact with which I strove.

For when a cruel power forced me to face

The truth which poisoned our illicit wine,

That even I was faithless to my race

Bleeding beneath the iron hand of thine,

Our union seemed a monstrous thing and base!

I was an outcast from thy world and mine.

Adventure-seasoned and storm-buffeted,

I shun all signs of anchorage, because

The zest of life exceeds the bound of laws.