Man's Devotion

A lover said, "O Maiden, love me well,
For I must go away:
And should ANOTHER ever come to tell
Of love -- What WILL you say?"

And she let fall a royal robe of hair
That folded on his arm
And made a golden pillow for her there;
Her face -- as bright a charm

As ever setting held in kingly crown --
Made answer with a look,
And reading it, the lover bended down,
And, trusting, "kissed the book."

He took a fond farewell and went away.

And slow the time went by --
So weary -- dreary was it, day by day
To love, and wait, and sigh.

She kissed his pictured face sometimes, and said:
"O Lips, so cold and dumb,
I would that you would tell me, if not dead,
Why, why do you not come?"

The picture, smiling, stared her in the face
Unmoved -- e'en with the touch
Of tear-drops -- HERS -- bejeweling the case --
'Twas plain -- she loved him much.

And, thus she grew to think of him as gay
And joyous all the while,
And SHE was sorrowing -- "Ah, welladay!"

But pictures ALWAYS smile!

And years -- dull years -- in dull monotony
As ever went and came,
Still weaving changes on unceasingly,
And changing, changed her name.

Was she untrue? -- She oftentimes was glad
And happy as a wife;
But ONE remembrance oftentimes made sad
Her matrimonial life. --

Though its few years were hardly noted, when
Again her path was strown
With thorns -- the roses swept away again,
And she again alone!

And then -- alas! ah THEN! -- her lover came:
"I come to claim you now --
My Darling, for I know you are the same,
And I have kept my vow

Through these long, long, long years, and now no more
Shall we asundered be!"

She staggered back and, sinking to the floor,
Cried in her agony:

"I have been false! " she moaned, "_I_ am not true --
I am not worthy now,
Nor ever can I be a wife to YOU --
For I have broke my vow!"

And as she kneeled there, sobbing at his feet,
He calmly spoke -- no sign
Betrayed his inward agony -- "I count you meet
To be a wife of mine!"

And raised her up forgiven, though untrue;
As fond he gazed on her,
She sighed, -- "SO HAPPY! " And she never knew
HE was a WIDOWER.

End of title

Man's Devotion

James Whitcomb Riley

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