I will be faithful to thee; aye, I will! <br />And Death shall choose me with a wondering eye <br />That he did not discern and domicile <br />One his by right ever since that last Good-bye! <br /> <br />I have no care for friends, or kin, or prime <br />Of manhood who deal gently with me here; <br />Amid the happy people of my time <br />Who work their love’s fulfilment, I appear <br /> <br />Numb as a vane that cankers on its point, <br />True to the wind that kissed ere canker came; <br />Despised by souls of Now, who would disjoint <br />The mind from memory, and make Life all aim, <br /> <br />My old dexterities of hue quite gone, <br />And nothing left for Love to look upon.<br /><br />Thomas Hardy<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/she-to-him-iii/
