Modern Love III: This Was the Woman
This was the woman; what now of the man?But pass him. If he comes beneath a heel,He shall be crushed until he cannot feel,Or, being callous, haply till he can.But he is nothing:--nothing? Only markThe rich light striking out from her on him!Ha! what a sense it is when her eyes swimAcross the man she singles, leaving darkAll else! Lord God, who mad'st the thing so fair,See that I am drawn to her even now!It cannot be such harm on her cool browTo put a kiss? Yet if I meet him there!But she is mine! Ah, no! I know too wellI claim a star whose light is overcast:I claim a phantom-woman in the Past.The hour has struck, though I heard not the bell!
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