We were apart; yet, day by day, <br />I bade my heart more constant be. <br />I bade it keep the world away, <br />And grow a home for only thee; <br />Nor fear'd but thy love likewise grew, <br />Like mine, each day, more tried, more true. <br /> <br />The fault was grave! I might have known, <br />What far too soon, alas! I learn'd-- <br />The heart can bind itself alone, <br />And faith may oft be unreturn'd. <br />Self-sway'd our feelings ebb and swell-- <br />Thou lov'st no more;--Farewell! Farewell! <br /> <br />Farewell!--and thou, thou lonely heart, <br />Which never yet without remorse <br />Even for a moment didst depart <br />From thy remote and spher{`e}d course <br />To haunt the place where passions reign-- <br />Back to thy solitude again! <br /> <br />Back! with the conscious thrill of shame <br />Which Luna felt, that summer-night, <br />Flash through her pure immortal frame, <br />When she forsook the starry height <br />To hang over Endymion's sleep <br />Upon the pine-grown Latmian steep. <br /> <br />Yet she, chaste queen, had never proved <br />How vain a thing is mortal love, <br />Wandering in Heaven, far removed. <br />But thou hast long had place to prove <br />This truth--to prove, and make thine own: <br />'Thou hast been, shalt be, art, alone.' <br /> <br />Or, if not quite alone, yet they <br />Which touch thee are unmating things-- <br />Ocean and clouds and night and day; <br />Lorn autumns and triumphant springs; <br />And life, and others' joy and pain, <br />And love, if love, of happier men. <br /> <br />Of happier men--for they, at least, <br />Have dream'd two human hearts might blend <br />In one, and were through faith released <br />From isolation without end <br />Prolong'd; nor knew, although not less <br />Alone than thou, their loneliness.<br /><br />Matthew Arnold<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/isolation-to-marguerite/
