Another Poem

Nasim Jafry mentioned the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay in "the State of Me", and this poem in particular, although she did not quote it. I did not know of either the poet or the poem, but through the miracle of Google I found it. It's a lovely poem about a lost love, and I pass it on hoping that you will never need it. Apropos of nothing in particular, my grandmother was an Edna - I hope she would never have needed this verse also.

Well, I have lost you; and I lost you fairly;
In my own way, and with my full consent.
Say what you will, kings in a tumbrel rarely
Went to their deaths more proud than this one went.
Some nights of apprehension and hot weeping
I will confess; but that's permitted me;
Day dried my eyes; I was not one for keeping
Rubbed in a cage a wing that would be free.
If I had loved you less or played you slyly
I might have held you for a summer more,
But at the cost of words I value highly,
And no such summer as the one before.
Should I outlive this anguish—and men do—
I shall have only good to say of you.