Not Quite The Same.

Not quite the same the spring-time seems to me,          Since that sad season when in separate ways          Our paths diverged. There are no more such days              As dawned for us in that lost time when we          Dwelt in the realm of dreams, illusive dreams;          Spring may be just as fair now, but it seems         Not quite the same.              Not quite the same is life, since we two parted,          Knowing it best to go our ways alone.          Fair measures of success we both have known,              And pleasant hours, and yet something departed          Which gold, nor fame, nor anything we win          Can all replace. And either life has been         Not quite the same.              Love is not quite the same, although each heart          Has formed new ties that are both sweet and true,          But that wild rapture, which of old we knew,              Seems to have been a something set apart          With that lost dream. There is no passion, now,          Mixed with this later love, which seems, somehow,         Not quite the same.              Not quite the same am I. My inner being          Reasons and knows that all is for the best.          Yet vague regrets stir always in my breast,              As my soul's eyes turn sadly backward, seeing          The vanished self that evermore must be,          This side of what we call eternity,         Not quite the same.