You That Were

You that were     Half my life ere life was mine;     You that on my shape the sign     Set of yours;     You that my young lips did kiss     When your kiss summed up my bliss....     Ah, once more     You to kiss were all my bliss!     You whom I     Could forget--strange, could forget     Even for days (ah, now the fret     Of my grief!);     You who loved me though forgot;     Welcomed still, reproaching not....     Ah, that now     That forgetting were forgot!     You that now     On my shoulder as I go     Put your hand that wounds me so;     You that brush     Yet my lips with that one last     Kiss that bitters all things past....     How shall I     Yet endure that kiss the last?     You that are     Where the feet of my blind grief     Find you not, nor find relief;     You that are     Where my thought flying after you     Broken falls and flies anew,     Now you're gone     My love accusing aches for you.     March 4, 1911.