If You Had Been True

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

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.