Estrangement

SO, without overt breach, we fall apart,

Tacitly sunder—neither you nor I

Conscious of one intelligible Why,

And both, from severance, winning equal smart.

So, with resigned and acquiescent heart,

Whene’er your name on some chance lip may lie,

I seem to see an alien shade pass by,

A spirit wherein I have no lot or part.

Thus may a captive, in some fortress grim,

From casual speech betwixt his warders, learn

That June on her triumphal progress goes

Through arched and bannered woodlands; while for him

She is a legend emptied of concern,

And idle is the rumour of the rose.