WAS it for nothing in the years gone by, <br />O my love, O my friend, <br />You thrilled me with your noble words of faith? — <br />Hope beyond life, and love, love beyond death! <br />Yet now I shudder, and yet you did not die, <br />O my friend, O my love! <br />Was it for nothing in the dear dead years, <br />O my love, O my friend, <br />I kissed you when you wrung my heart from me, <br />And gave my stubborn hand where trust might be? <br />Yet then I smiled, and see, these bitter tears, <br />O my friend, O my love! <br />No bitter words to say to you have I, <br />O my love, O my friend! <br />That faith, that hope, that love was mine, not yours! <br />And yet that kiss, that clasp endures, endures. <br />I have no bitter words to say. Good-bye, <br />O my friend, O my love!<br /><br />Francis William Lauderdale Adams<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-an-old-friend-in-england/
