Love's Weakness

I know if I had loved you, as saints may,
I had kept mute this love within my breast;
So high I think you are above the rest,
That what to other women had been play
Made you just something sorry for one day, —
One day, not more; but great love unexpressed,
Such love as makes death dark and life unblessed,
Is hard to bear, whatever saints may say.

It doubtless had been strong of me and great.
If I had let you pass and said no word,
When all my heart was as the heart of one
From whom, as old tales tell, the mystic bird
Turned slow and sadly, seeing life was done,
As turned your soul from mine, my love, my fate!