Poems (Duer)/An Apology

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For works with similar titles, see An Apology.
4525089Poems — An ApologyAlice Duer
AN APOLOGY.
Some wayward tide in memory's sea
Has borne my thoughts back to the turning
When Fate first taught to you, through me,
A lesson hardly worth the learning;
Showed you that changeful looks could prove
Fit emblem of the heart they cover;
Showed you, alas! the more we love,
The less the loved is worth the lover.

And though the story now is old,
Your loyalty would still forbid you
To show me that your thoughts could hold
One token of the wrong I did you.
And yet, my dear, within your heart
Some faint resentment must have tarried;.
Though Fate had used a worthless dart,
The wound was none the easier carried.

Forgive me, many days there are
Since then.—Do those a whole life leaven?
And you and I have drifted far,
Though not, perhaps, much nearer heaven.
Forgive me, dearest, not because
Years certain suffering have brought me—
Not for the sake of what I was—
But for the sake of what you thought me.

C. D.