I did not know; child, child, I did not know, <br />Who now in lonely wayfare go, <br />Who wander lonely of you, O my child, <br />And by myself exiled. <br />I did not know, but, O white soul of youth, <br />So passionate of truth, <br />So amorous of duty, and so strong <br />To suffer, not to suffer wrong, <br />Is there for me no pity, who am weak? <br />Spare me this silence, speak! <br />I did not know: I wronged you; I repent: <br />But will you not relent? <br />Must I still wander, outlawed, and go on <br />The old weary ways alone, <br />As in the old intolerable days <br />Before I saw you face to face, <br />The doubly darkened ways since you withdraw <br />Your light, that was my law? <br />I charge you by your soul, pause, ere you hurl <br />Sheer to destruction, girl, <br />A poor soul that had midway struggled out, <br />Still midway clogged about, <br />And for the love of you had turned his back <br />Upon the miry track, <br />That had been as a grassy wood-way, dim <br />With violet-beds, to him. <br />I wronged you, but I loved you; and to me <br />Your love was purity; <br />I rose, because you called me, and I drew <br />Nearer to God, in you. <br />I fall, and if you leave me, I must fall <br />To that last depth of all, <br />Where not the miracle of even your eyes <br />Can bid the dead arise. <br />I charge you that you save not your own sense <br />Of lilied innocence, <br />By setting, at the roots of that fair stem, <br />A murdered thing, to nourish them.<br /><br />Arthur Symons<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/de-profundis-clemadi/
