When the game began between them for a jest,
He played king and she played queen to match thebest;
Laughter soft as tears, and tears that turned tolaughter,
These were things she sought for years andsorrowed after.
Pleasure with dry lips, and pain that walks bynight;
All the sting and all the stain of long delight;
These were things she knew not of, that knew notof her,
When she played at half a love with half alover.
Time was chorus, gave them cues to laugh or cry;
They would kill, befool, amuse him, let him die;
Set him webs to weave to-day and breakto-morrow,
Till he died for good in play, and rose insorrow.
What the years mean; how time dies and is notslain;
How love grows and laughs and cries and wanesagain;
These were things she came to know, and taketheir measure,
When the play was played out so for one man’spleasure.
I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet, keen smell,
The sight sound, the lights around the shore.
You have been mine before, ─
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow’s soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall, ─ I knew it all of yore.
Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time’s eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death’s despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?