This was the woman; what now of the man? <br />But pass him. If he comes beneath a heel, <br />He shall be crushed until he cannot feel, <br />Or, being callous, haply till he can. <br />But he is nothing:--nothing? Only mark <br />The rich light striking out from her on him! <br />Ha! what a sense it is when her eyes swim <br />Across the man she singles, leaving dark <br />All else! Lord God, who mad'st the thing so fair, <br />See that I am drawn to her even now! <br />It cannot be such harm on her cool brow <br />To put a kiss? Yet if I meet him there! <br />But she is mine! Ah, no! I know too well <br />I claim a star whose light is overcast: <br />I claim a phantom-woman in the Past. <br />The hour has struck, though I heard not the bell!<br /><br />George Meredith<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/modern-love-iii-this-was-the-woman/
