Classic Poem

I thought I had forgotten you and found peace at last;
I had so busied myself with this and that,
In making griddle cake and soda bread,
In working linen on a little frame.
And all the time I sang lest anyone
Should pierce my thoughts with your name.

I thought I had forgotten you and grown so stead-fast
That I could walk the hills with a careless step
And see the mountainy young lambs at play
And laugh at them having left you behind:
But as I stood above the Glen Imaal
Your name was breathed by the wind.

I thought I had forgotten you so that the spring time
Would never repeat your promises again,
But all night long the corncrake shouted them,
And the full moon remembered how we met,
Even the white sweet hawthorn at the door
Remembered. Could I forget?

True, I had not forgotten you. I shared my secret
With whispering reeds round Lough Nahanagan.
The cuckoo in the woods near Kevin's bed
Called to us both the livelong day. The scent
Of every whin bush held lost happiness:
It was vain to seek content.

I would pay golden guineas to win forgetfulness.
But no mountain lough would be deep enough
To hide from you, nor Lugnaquilla's crests
Be far enough away. The heather's breath
Would bring you to my thoughts. I doubt myself
I shall forget you in death.