The Destroyer Of A Soul

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I HATE you with a necessary hate.
 First, I sought patience: passionate was she:
 My patience turned in very scorn of me,
 That I should dare forgive a sin so great,
 As this, through which I sit disconsolate;
 Mourning for that live soul, I used to see;
 Soul of a saint, whose friend I used to be:
 Till you came by! a cold, corrupting, fate.

 Why come you now? You, whom I cannot cease
 With pure and perfect hate to hate? Go, ring
 The death-bell with a deep, triumphant toll!
 Say you, my friend sits by me still? Ah, peace!
 Call you this thing my friend? this nameless thing?
 This living body, hiding its dead soul?

© Lionel Pigot Johnson