Aubrey Thomas de Vere (1814–1902)

(Entitled by the Author, “Incompatibility”)

FORGIVE me that I love you as I do,

Friend patient long; too patient to reprove

The inconvenience of superfluous love.

You feel that it molests you, and ’t is true.

In a light bark you sit, with a full crew;—

Your life, full-orbed, compelled strange love to meet,

Becomes, by such addition, incomplete.

Because I love, I leave you. O, adieu!

Perhaps when I am gone the thought of me

May sometimes be your àcceptable guest.

Indeed you love me: but my company

Old time makes tedious; and to part is best.

Not without Nature’s will are natures wed:—

O gentle Death, how dear thou mak’st the dead!