Severed Forever

O Love! when the great gulfs between us are,
When all is said that you or I can say.
When you have made your choice and gone your way,
While in strange lands, unlit by any star, —
But full of storm and flame, and all the jar
Of shrill, strained music such as fiends may play,
When on some soul, long waited for as prey.
Their hands the gates of hell in thunder bar, —

I walk, and heap new nights and barren days
Upon my weary soul to keep your face
From rising up to look at me, and daze
My sense once more with its beguiling grace, —
Then you may know, across a dead soul's grave,
How love is strong to slay as well as save.