Too dear are the fetters that wind round my heart.
“I deemed that I knew thee as none ever knew,
That ’twas mine to subdue thee and thine to be true,
Thy mask to the many was worn not to me,
I loved thee—can any seem like unto thee?
“I worshiped in terror a comet above—
Ah, fatal the error, ah, fatal the love!
For thy sake life never can charm me again,
Its beauty forever is vanished and vain!
“What slight words will sting us that breathe of the past,