Had I wist, when life was like a warm wind playing <br />Light and loud through sundawn and the dew's bright trust, <br />How the time should come for hearts to sigh in saying <br /> 'Had I wist' - <br /> <br />Surely not the roses, laughing as they kissed, <br />Not the lovelier laugh of seas in sunshine swaying, <br />Should have lured my soul to look thereon and list. <br /> <br />Now the wind is like a soul cast out and praying <br />Vainly, prayers that pierce not ears when hearts resist: <br />Now mine own soul sighs, adrift as wind and straying, <br /> 'Had I wist.'<br /><br />Algernon Charles Swinburne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/had-i-wist/
