148
IDEAL PASSION
IV
She doth not leave me comfortless, nor e'er
Of other lovers envious do I go,
Who knew their ladies in the life below
And after mourned them, whence the frequent stir
Of what hath been doth sadly minister
Images of what they no more shall know;
She, unremembered, is more heavenly so;
And more imperishably unto her
My thoughts mount up, free from all earthly sense,
Regrets, and grief-changed joys, if any joy,
Vain recollections of love's impotence,
And blots that our vexed life below annoy;
My thoughts still meet her in pure innocence,
And manhood but repeats the virgin boy.
