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Poems (Duer)/An Apology

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For works with similar titles, see An Apology.
4525089Poems — An ApologyAlice Duer and Caroline Duer
AN APOLOGY.
Some wayward tide in memory's sea Has borne my thoughts back to the turning When Fate first taught to you, through me, A lesson hardly worth the learning; Showed you that changeful looks could prove Fit emblem of the heart they cover; Showed you, alas! the more we love, The less the loved is worth the lover.
And though the story now is old, Your loyalty would still forbid you To show me that your thoughts could hold One token of the wrong I did you. And yet, my dear, within your heart Some faint resentment must have tarried;. Though Fate had used a worthless dart, The wound was none the easier carried.
Forgive me, many days there are Since then.—Do those a whole life leaven? And you and I have drifted far, Though not, perhaps, much nearer heaven. Forgive me, dearest, not because Years certain suffering have brought me—Not for the sake of what I was—But for the sake of what you thought me.
C. D.