Page:The Works of Lord Byron (ed. Coleridge, Prothero) - Volume 4.djvu/586

544 Perhaps thou may'st imagine now

Who loved thee, and who loved thee not.

And thou wert wedded to another,

And I at last another wedded:

I am a father, thou a mother,

To Strangers vowed, with strangers bedded.

For land to land, even blood to blood—

Since leagued of yore our fathers were—

Our manors and our birthright stood;

And not unequal had I wooed,

If to have wooed thee I could dare.

But this I never dared—even yet

When naught is left but to forget.

I feel that I could only love:

To sue was never meant for me,

And least of all to sue to thee;

For many a bar, and many a feud,

Though never told, well understood

Rolled like a river wide between—

And then there was the Curse of blood,

Which even my Heart's can not remove.

Alas! how many things have been!

Since we were friends; for I alone

Feel more for thee than can be shown.

4.

How many things! I loved thee—thou

Loved'st me not: another was

The Idol of thy virgin vow,

And I was, what I am, Alas!

And what he is, and what thou art,

And what we were, is like the rest:

We must endure it as a test,

And old Ordeal of the Heart. Venice, Dec. 29, 1818.