Love, in the glow of the sunset,
    I have been thinking of you.
 Thinking what you might have made me,
    If you had been constant and true.
 You know I built wonderful castles,
    And you had a part in them all;
 But you cheated me, Love, you remember,
    And down fell each beautiful wall.

 Well, you see I lost faith in all women--
    The very worst thing I could do.
 Thought they were all of one pattern,
    And that was inconstant, untrue.
 I know it was but a mad fancy:
    Know women are truer than men.
 But I wish I had found it out sooner,
    Or could live my life over again.

 For you see I have wasted my manhood;
    I don't really care to tell how.
 And if I could live it all over,
    I think I could better it now.
 I would marry some nice little woman--
    Some other, if I couldn't get you.
 And I would be tender and faithful,
    And she would be constant and true.

1870