6

Finally Begun

My love was not among the stars but on
The ground with me. A good friend first, then as
It should, a lover became'd he. As
Winter sleeps to Spring again, so love long
	Ebbed and flowed; (a friendship loving-tended
	First, has roots to wait the snows). Now spring is
	Come, and warmth I know, and well my garden's
	Green, filled with fair-friends and well memoried,
With the dearest hearts e're seen. Though the paths
I've missed in youth, may ne'er again lead from
My gate, the better path we walk upon,
The smoother for the wait. Let none say youth
	Is spent in ill upon the very young,
	T'was spent so we are now, at last, ... ... ... begun.