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1880–1929

YOU THAT WERE

John Freeman

You that were Half my life ere life was mine; You that on my shape the sign Set of yours;

You that my young lips did kiss When your kiss summed up my bliss.... Ah, once more You to kiss were all my bliss!

You whom I Could forget — strange, could forget Even for days ( ah, now the fret Of my grief! );

You who loved me though forgot; Welcomed still, reproaching not.... Ah, that now That forgetting were forgot!

You that now On my shoulder as I go Put your hand that wounds me so; You that brush

Yet my lips with that one last Kiss that bitters all things past.... How shall I Yet endure that kiss the last?

You that are Where the feet of my blind grief Find you not, nor find relief; You that are

Where my thought flying after you Broken falls and flies anew, Now you're gone My love accusing aches for you.

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YOU THAT WERE · John Freeman · Poetry Cove