I will come back to you, I swear I will;
And you will know me still.
I shall be only a little taller
Than when I went.

For men that are afraid to die
Must warm their hands before a lie;
The fire that's built of What is Known
Will chill the marrow in the bone.

The undercurrent of my every thought:
To seek you, find you, have you for my own.

What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why,
I have forgotten, and what arms have lain
Under my head till morning, but the rain
Is full of ghosts tonight, that tap and sigh
Upon the glass and listen for reply,
And in my heart there stirs a quiet pain
For unremembered lads that not again
Will turn to me at midnight with a cry.

Thus in the winter stands the lonely tree,
Nor knows what birds have vanished one by one,
Yet knows its boughs more silent than before:
I cannot say what loves have come and gone,
I only know that summer sang in me
A little while, that in me sings no more.

After all, my erstwhile dear,
My no longer cherished,
Need we say it was not love,
Just because it perished?

No one but Night, with tears on her dark face, watches beside me in this windy place.