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Dinah Maria Mulock - A Rejected Lover
Work rating: Low

You "never loved me," Ada. These slow words 
Dropped softly from your gentle woman-tongue 
Out of your true and kindly woman-heart, 
Fell, piercing into mine like very swords 
The sharper for their kindness. Yet no wrong 
Lies to your charge, nor cruelty, nor art,-- 
Ev`n when you spoke, I saw the tender tear-drop start. 

You "never loved me." No, you never knew, 
You, with youth`s morning fresh upon your soul, 
What `t is to love: slow, drop by drop, to pour 
Our life`s whole essence, perfumed through and through 
With all the best we have or can control 
For the libation--cast it down before 
Your feet--then lift the goblet, dry for evermore. 

I shall not die as foolish lovers do: 
A man`s heart beats beneath thid breast of mine, 
The breast where--Curse on that fiend-whispering 
"It might have been!"--Ada, I will be true 
Unto myself--the self that so loved thine: 
May all life`s pain, like these few tears that spring 
For me, glance off as rain-drops from my white dove`s wing! 

May you live long, some good man`s bosom flower, 
And gather chldren round your matron knees: 
So, when all this is past, and you and I 
Remember each our youth-days as an hour 
Of joy--or anguish, one, serene, at ease, 
May come to meet the other`s steadfast eye, 
Thinking, "He loved me well!" clasp hands, and so pass by.
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