Nay, I have known it well for many days

You have grown tired of all tender ways;

Love’s kisses weary you, love’s eager words,

Old as the hills and sweet as singing-birds,

Are fetters hard to bear! O love, be free!

You will lose little joy in losing me;

Let me depart, remembering only this,

That once you loved me, and that once your kiss

Crown’d me with joy supreme enough to last

Through all my life till that brief life be past.