Changed? Yes, I will confess it – I have changed. <br /> I do not love you in the old fond way. <br />I am your friend still – time has not estranged <br /> One kindly feeling of that vanished day. <br /> <br />But the bright glamour which made life a dream, <br /> The rapture of that time, its sweet content, <br />Like visions of a sleeper’s brain they seem – <br /> And yet I cannot tell you how they went. <br /> <br />Why do you gaze with such accusing eyes <br /> Upon me, dear? It is so very strange <br />That hearts, like all things underneath God’s skies, <br /> Should sometimes feel the influence of change? <br /> <br />The birds, the flowers, the foliage of the trees, <br /> The stars which seem so fixed, and so sublime, <br />Vast continents, and the eternal seas, - <br /> All these do change, with ever-changing time. <br /> <br />The face our mirror shows us year on year <br /> Is not the same; our dearest aim, or need, <br />Our lightest thought, or feeling hope, or fear, <br /> All, all the law of alternation heed. <br /> <br />How can we ask the human heart to stay, <br /> Content with fancies of Youth’s earliest hours? <br />The year outgrows the violets of May, <br /> Although, maybe, there are no fairer flowers. <br /> <br />And life may hold no sweeter love than this, <br /> Which lies so cold, so voiceless, and so dumb, <br />And will I miss it, dear? Why, yes, we miss <br /> The violets always – till the roses come!<br /><br />Ella Wheeler Wilcox<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/change-5/
