Ah! changed and cold, how changed and very cold, <br />With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes: <br />Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise; <br />This was the promise of the days of old! <br />Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould, <br />Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies: <br />We hoped for better things as years would rise, <br />But it is over as a tale once told. <br />All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore, <br />All lost the present and the future time, <br />All lost, all lost, the lapse that went before: <br />So lost till death shut-to the opened door, <br />So lost from chime to everlasting chime, <br />So cold and lost for ever evermore.<br /><br />Christina Georgina Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dead-before-death/
