Never
Once I knew a pretty woman,
Lovely as a fresh Spring dawn;
Fragrant as a balmy flower;
Sweeter far than honey of the bee.
Her I loved with fierce emotion;
Loved her with consuming fervour;
Loved her tenderly.
Happiness ineffable
Was mine a while; a brief,
Rhapsodic time which soon,
Too soon, was past.
My ecstatic jubilation
Died before it ever knew
What influence had called it from the void;
Nor did it reach the ear of any,
Save as a slow-expiring sigh
Of misery.
Never did I learn the reason
For her sudden flight from me.
Though I pled her, she disdained
To even hear my plea;
Deaf those ears in which I’d whispered,
Dumb the tongue I longed to hear.
With links of bitter painfulness
An iron chain imprisoned me.
Forged and entwined in sadness,
(In the embers of hot gladness),
About my aching heart,
That love-destroying chain
Restricted, cramped and crushed
My spirit’s former hopes.
The iron then deep-entered my soft soul
And tainted there the gentle love
Which blossomed pure within.
Then was that flower poisoned;
She only had its cure.
But she was gone!.
Gone as a breath of wind,
Leaving no trace of her passing
Save a trembling and a restlessness
Unknown before;
And a thirst, unquenchable
Except by her sweet kisses.
She had the key to unlock the chain
That cruelly had kept my heart
From that it prized most dear: herself.
She had the cure for that flower of love
Which, poisoned, wilted in my soul’s
Deep depths of anguished loneliness.
She had the power to build again
The fortress of my spirit up.
Would she never return to me?.
Would she never come back
To these arms which awaited her
Lonelily?. Would she never
Again bring gladness to my life?.
No!. She would never return.
No. She would never come back.
