SONNET.
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h! changed and cold, how changed and very cold!With stiffened smiling lips and cold calm eyes:Changed, yet the same; much knowing, little wise;_This_ was the promise of the days of old!Grown hard and stubborn in the ancient mould,Grown rigid in the sham of lifelong lies:We hoped for better things as years would rise,But it is over as a tale once told.All fallen the blossom that no fruitage bore,All lost the present and the future time,All lost, all lost, the lapse that went before:So lost till death shut-to the opened door,So lost from chime to everlasting chime,So cold and lost forever evermore.
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