To My Wives Poem by David Lewis Paget

You may believe, my ladies dear,
I took away your sun,
To cloak you in my darkness
While our time was left to run;
You may believe I took your youth
And brought you to despair,
But that was not my purpose;
It was life that took us there.

The old recriminations
That have saddened all my years,
As each and every one of you
Went off, in search of tears,
The old recriminations, using
Truths I can’t retract,
Come back to haunt me, every one:
‘Was I as bad as that? ’

The life that is behind us now
Is locked in some old hearse,
You’ve moved along, and like the song
You sing another verse,
But I sit in the dark, and hear
Each word you brought undone,
And swear before the living God:
‘I loved you, every one! ’