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SHE, TO HIM: 2, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Perhaps, long hence, when I have passed away
Last Line: A thought -- as I in yours but seem to be.
Variant Title(s): She, To Him (ii)


PERHAPS, long hence, when I have passed away,
Some other's feature, accent, thought like mine,
Will carry you back to what I used to say,
And bring some memory of your love's decline.

Then you may pause awhile and think, "Poor jade!"
And yield a sigh to me -- as gift benign,
Not as the tittle of a debt unpaid
To one who could to you her all resign --

And thus reflecting, you will never see
That your thin thought, in two small words conveyed,
Was no such fleeting phantom-thought to me,
But the Whole Life wherein my part was played;
And you amid its fitful masquerade
A Thought -- as I in yours but seem to be.






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