St. Launce’s Revisited

     Slip back, Time!
Yet again I am nearing
Castle and keep,uprearing
     Gray, as in my prime.

     At the inn
Smiling nigh,why is it
Not as on my visit
     When hope and I were twin?

     Groom and jade
Whom I found here, moulder;
Strange the tavern-holder,
     Strange the tap-maid.

     Here I hired
Horse and man for bearing
Me on my wayfaring
     To the door desired.

     Evening gloomed
As I journeyed forward
To the faces shoreward,
     Till their dwelling loomed.

     If again
Towards the Atlantic sea there
I should speed, they'd be there
     Surely now as then? . . .

     Why waste thought,
When I know them vanished
Under earth; yea, banished
     Ever into nought!