Explore "Requital" by Leigh Gordon Giltner on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
What tho' you loved me once? Man's love at best / Is but a mood--the fancy of an hour, / You held all faith and truth a theme for jest, / Love's recompense, a smile. You knew your power.
What tho' you loved me then? You went away / And left my life an arid waste of pain; / And now--your best years spent, your idols clay-- / You stretch imploring arms to me again.
What tho' you love me still? What tho' you say / The current of your life toward mine is set, / As vagrant stars obey the planets' sway, / Or perfume clingeth to the violet?
What tho' I once loved you? See in yon West / Day's fires have burned to ashes cold and gray; / So in my quiet heart love's wild unrest / By its own flame consumed, is dead for aye.