Let us go hence, my songs; she will not hear. | |
Let us go hence together without fear; | |
Keep silence now, for singing-time is over, | |
And over all old things and all things dear. | |
She loves not you nor me as all we love her. | |
Yea, though we sang as angels in her ear, | |
She would not hear. | |
Let us rise up and part; she will not know. | |
Let us go seaward as the great winds go, | |
10 | Full of blown sand and foam; what help is here? |
There is no help, for all these things are so, | |
And all the world is bitter as a tear. | |
And how these things are, though ye strove to show, | |
She would not know. | |
Let us go home and hence; she will not weep. | |
We gave love many dreams and days to keep, | |
Flowers without scent, and fruits that would not grow, | |
Saying ‘If thou wilt, thrust in thy sickle and reap.’ | |
All is reaped now; no grass is left to mow; | |
20 | And we that sowed, though all we fell on sleep, |
She would not weep. | |
Let us go hence and rest; she will not love. | |
She shall not hear us if we sing hereof, | |
Nor see love’s ways, how sore they are and steep. | |
Come hence, let be, lie still; it is enough. | |
Love is a barren sea, bitter and deep; | |
And though she saw all heaven in flower above, | |
She would not love. | |
Let us give up, go down; she will not care. | |
30 | Though all the stars made gold of all the air, |
And the sea moving saw before it move | |
One moon-flower making all the foam-flowers fair; | |
Though all those waves went over us, and drove | |
Deep down the stifling lips and drowning hair, | |
She would not care. | |
Let us go hence, go hence; she will not see. | |
Sing all once more together; surely she, | |
She too, remembering days and words that were, | |
Will turn a little toward us, sighing; but we, | |
40 | We are hence, we are gone, as though we had not been there. |
Nay, and though all men seeing had pity on me, | |
She would not see. |