Had we but met in other days, <br />Had we but loved in other ways, <br />Another light and hope had shone <br />On your life and my own. <br /> <br />In sweet but hopeless reveries <br />I fancy how your wistful eyes <br />Had saved me, had I known their power <br />In fate's imperious hour; <br /> <br />How loving you, beloved of God, <br />And following you, the path I trod <br />Had led me, through your love and prayers, <br />To God's love unawares: <br /> <br />And how our beings joined as one <br />Had passed through checkered shade and sun, <br />Until the earth our lives had given, <br />With little change, to heaven. <br /> <br />God knows why this was not to be. <br />You bloomed from childhood far from me, <br />The sunshine of the favored place <br />That knew your youth and grace. <br /> <br />And when your eyes, so fair and free, <br />In fearless beauty beamed on me, <br />I knew the fatal die was thrown, <br />My choice in life was gone. <br /> <br />And still with wild and tender art <br />Your child-love touched my torpid heart, <br />Gilding the blackness where it fell, <br />Like sunlight over hell. <br /> <br />In vain, in vain! my choice was gone! <br />Better to struggle on alone <br />Than blot your pure life's blameless shine <br />With cloudy stains of mine. <br /> <br />A vague regret, a troubled prayer, <br />And then the future vast and fair <br />Will tempt your young and eager eyes <br />With all its glad surprise. <br /> <br />And I shall watch you, safe and far, <br />As some late traveller eyes a star <br />Wheeling beyond his desert sands <br />To gladden happier lands.<br /><br />John Hay<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/too-late-7/
