present

i think i should have loved you presently,
and given in earnest words i flung in jest;
and lifted honest eyes for you to see,
and caught your hand against my cheek and breast;
and all my pretty follies flung aside
that won you to me, and beneath your gaze,
naked of reticence and shorn of pride,
spread like a chart my little wicked ways.
i, that had been to you, had you remained,
but one more waking frorn a recurrent dream,
cherish no less the certain stakes i gained,
and walk your memory’s halls, austere, supreme,
a ghost in marble of a girl you knew
who would have loved you in a day or two.”
edna st. vincent millay

here