Page:The Poems of Henry Kendall (1920).djvu/178

 Then came the bitter, sudden change,

The fastened lips, the dumb despair.

The first few weeks were very strange,

And long, and sad, and hard to bear.

No woman lives with power to burst

My passion's bonds, and set me free;

For Rose is last where Rose was first,

And only Rose is fair to me.

The faintest memory of her face,

The wilful face that hurt me so,

Is followed by a fiery trace

That Rose Lorraine must never know.

I keep a faded ribbon string

You used to wear about your throat;

And of this pale, this perished thing,

I think I know the threads by rote.

God help such love! To touch your hand,

To loiter where your feet might fall,

You marvellous girl, my soul would stand

The worst of hell—its fires and all!