Shadow

Once while in ease we talked of this and that,
A shadow fell across the half-meant words.
Most suddenly we turned from happiness,
And saw between the tea-cups and the tea
Intolerable barriers of reserve.

Things understood in part and part misjudged,
Half-lights, half-comprehensions, all the host
Of life-old shrinkings, seemed unbearable;
And tired of all the twisted wanderings sane men hate,
I saw the splendour of another fate,
The clean straight beauty of normality,
Young as a god and eager as a soldier.

Desired more bitterly than words can tell
The comradeship of understanding, love,
Scarce dreamt-of dawns and unimagined days,
If I were really I, and you were you.

—C. G. W.