Men and Women (Browning)/Volume 2/In a Year

by Robert Browning

For other versions of this work, see In a Year.

IN A YEAR.

1.
Never any more,
 While I live,
Need I hope to see his face
 As before.
Once his love grown chill,
 Mine may strive—
Bitterly we re-embrace,
 Single still.

2.
Was it something said,
 Something done,
Vexed him? was it touch of hand,
 Turn of head?
Strange! that very way
 Love begun.
I as little understand
 Love's decay.

3.
When I sewed or drew,
 I recall
How he looked as if I sang,
 —Sweetly too.
If I spoke a word,
 First of all
Up his cheek the color sprang,
 Then he heard.

4.
Sitting by my side,
 At my feet,
So he breathed the air I breathed,
 Satisfied!
I, too, at love's brim
 Touched the sweet:
I would die if death bequeathed
 Sweet to him.

5.
"Speak, I love thee best!"
 He exclaimed.
"Let thy love my own foretell,—"
 I confessed:
"Clasp my heart on thine
 Now unblamed,
Since upon thy soul as well
 Hangeth mine!"

6.
Was it wrong to own,
 Being truth?
Why should all the giving prove
 His alone?
I had wealth and ease,
 Beauty, youth—
Since my lover gave me love,
 I gave these.

7.
That was all I meant,
 —To be just,
And the passion I had raised
 To content.
Since he chose to change
 Gold for dust,
If I gave him what he praised
 Was it strange?

8.
Would he loved me yet,
 On and on,
While I found some way undreamed
 —Paid my debt!
Gave more life and more,
 Till, all gone,
He should smile "She never seemed
 Mine before.

9.
"What—she felt the while,
 Must I think?
Love's so different with us men,"
 He should smile.
"Dying for my sake—
 White and pink!
Can't we touch these bubbles then
 But they break?"

10.
Dear, the pang is brief.
 Do thy part,
Have thy pleasure. How perplext
 Grows belief!
Well, this cold clay clod
 Was man's heart.
Crumble it—and what comes next?
 Is it God?