Classic Poem

If thou must ever come, then pass away,
Like the sad ending of a dream too sweet
For treading therein with cold wakeful feet—
A dream that vanishes when morning grey
Peers in the chilly loveless face of day
And summons him from his forlorn retreat
Long hours of pain and labour to repeat—
If thou must thus the laws of time obey,
Yet is it not unalterably good
That once at least in life I have seen thy face,
Once touched thy hand, and once beside thee stood?
Have I not won at least this changeless grace
That in the heart of him who loved and sang
Thou hast left love endless,—and an endless pang?