Claude McKay - One Year After lyrics

Not once in all our days of poignant love, Did I a single instant give to thee My undivided being wholly free. Not all thy potent pa**ion could remove The barrier that loomed between to prove The full supreme surrendering of me. Oh, I was beaten, helpless utterly Against the shadow-fact with which I strove. For when a cruel power forced me to face The truth which poisoned our illicit wine, That even I was faithless to my race Bleeding beneath the iron hand of thine, Our union seemed a monstrous thing and base! I was an outcast from thy world and mine.