TWO COUPLES are drifting the self-same way <br />(Men of the world know well) <br />From the ballroom glare as the night grows grey <br />(Men of the world can tell). <br />Many are round them who know, and knew, <br />But men of the world are blind; <br />That couple in front has nought to do <br />With the couple that comes behind. <br /> <br />The woman starts on her partner’s arm, <br />For a reason he could not tell— <br />She trips and she laughs the Society laugh, <br />That men of the world know well. <br />If she laughs too suddenly, talks too fast, <br />We are deaf as well as blind— <br />’Twas only the ghosts of the girlish days <br />When she married the man behind. <br /> <br />He feels a pang where his heart had been <br />(For a reason he cannot tell). <br />A spasm that mars the cynical smile <br />That men of the world know well. <br />A spasm that’s known in Society, <br />And by many men “out of the hunt”. <br />’Tis only the ghosts of his boyish hopes <br />When he married the woman in front. <br /> <br />And the man in front, and the woman behind <br />(Oh, Society’s smile and bow!) <br />They are too well-bred to ask even in thought <br />What has come to their partners now. <br />But the couples drift in Society’s stream <br />To the kerb where the two cabs wait— <br />It was all because of what others had said, <br />And a word that was spoken too late.<br /><br />Henry Lawson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/divorced-7/
