Amabel

I marked her ruined hues,     Her custom-straitened views,     And asked, "Can there indwell     My Amabel?"     I looked upon her gown,     Once rose, now earthen brown;     The change was like the knell     Of Amabel.     Her step's mechanic ways     Had lost the life of May's;     Her laugh, once sweet in swell,     Spoilt Amabel.     I mused: "Who sings the strain     I sang ere warmth did wane?     Who thinks its numbers spell     His Amabel?" -     Knowing that, though Love cease,     Love's race shows undecrease;     All find in dorp or dell     An Amabel.     - I felt that I could creep     To some housetop, and weep,     That Time the tyrant fell     Ruled Amabel!     I said (the while I sighed     That love like ours had died),     "Fond things I'll no more tell     To Amabel,     "But leave her to her fate,     And fling across the gate,     'Till the Last Trump, farewell,     O Amabel!'"     1865.