"Reaping"

Reaping

Why is it I forget the good 

You brought me in the past, 

And dwell upon the tireless grief 

You wrought me at the last? 

Why is it I forget how kind 

And true you were for years, 

And only think how at the last 

You gave me shame and tears? 

Why is it I forget the fault 

Was mine—my very own, 

And murmur in my sleepless grief 

That it was yours alone? 

This is my punishment. Love’s rose 

Has fallen by the way; 

But on its thorn, that still remains, 

My heart bleeds night and day.

"Reaping" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).