Louis Untermeyer, ed. (1885–1977). Modern British Poetry. 1920.
Ernest Dowson18671900You Would Have Understood Me
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I could have loved you, dear! as well as he:
Had we not been impatient, dear! and fated
Always to disagree.
Lest we should still be wishing things unsaid.
Though all the words we ever spake were bitter,
Shall I reproach you, dead?
All the old anger, setting us apart:
Always, in all, in truth was I your lover;
Always, I held your heart.
As you were cold, dear! with a grace as rare.
Think you, I turned to them, or made surrender,
I who had found you fair?
I had fought death for you, better than he:
But from the very first, dear! we were fated
Always to disagree.
Love that in life was not to be our part:
On your low lying mound between the roses,
Sadly I cast my heart.
Death and the darkness give you unto me;
Here we who loved so, were so cold and bitter,
Hardly can disagree.