Sonnet.
The Old and the New Self.
Back through the years I look, but cannot see1
Myself ; a stranger filled my place and bore2
My face and name. I stand here on the shore3
Of love’s new world, a new self—loving thee.4
From this new self, love-crowned, I cannot free5
My older self : so much love’s dower’s more6
Than that which it endows. Its boundless store7
Holds no account with hope or memory.8
Therefore, the self with which I love you now,9
Creates a past, wherein strange figures move,10
My old self and old thoughts, that to and fro11
Flit aimlessly. This new self, by your love12
Evoked, looks on, as on some vacant show,13
So unreal seems that self of long ago.14