Palaces of Glass

‘I don’t love you anymore!’

Then she turned to face the door,

As the well-spring of emotion burst at last;

For the truth will not be hidden

From the moment that it’s bidden

Though it shatters all the palaces of glass.

 

All the palaces of glass

That we toil to build, alas,

Shatter surely at the first bleak winter’s chill;

Along corridors and towers

By the eaves, and in the bowers

Icy winds and bitter mists will take their fill.

 

‘I have loved you now since when,

And will love, until again

You can find it in your heart to think of me.’

Then I looked, and she was gone

With a winter coming on,

The like of which I thought I’d never see.

 

Now the night is like a pall

Holding heaven in its thrall,

And the ice has slowed the blood within the vein;

All my palaces are gone

Only memories linger on,

And a love that I could only feel as pain!

 

David Lewis Paget