Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
FarewellJohn Addington Symonds (18401893)
I
The love that we knew:
Those cobwebs we spun with
Are beaded with dew.
To love thee was pain:
I dare not believe thee
To love thee again.
Are the years that I lost;
To thee they were given
Without count of cost.
By penance or prayer;
Hell’s tempest must drive them
Thro’ turbulent air.
For I too am free
From the shame that beset me,
The sorrow of thee.