I really like this. My only critique would be that i think twang goes better than swain, with the other audiological words :) If there is a meaning central to that word im not seeing, than happily disregard my advice!

AH, good suggestion! Completely slipped past me.

Lovely use of alliteration within the second stanza. Within line three i think instead of gate, perhaps gait would work? Unless of course i'm missing something....

Not me you're replying to, but i found this interesting!  I just spent about 20 minutes reading about the mercian dialect :P You learn something new every day... My high school english teacher definitely called Shakespeare old English.

Actually a pretty common mistake. What people think to be old English is actually early modern English. Old English is far more germanic, pre-dating the merge of French with the language after the invasion and conquest of William of Normandy. [This](http://www.omniglot.com/images/langsamples/smp_oldenglish.gif) is an example of what old English would look like.

No one has said anything about the language you used for the poem, which I think is interesting. I would think that a poem which uses it (old English?) requires more thought and deliberated word choice. 

    Separation from thine splendor berates
    me to the core, sleepless I walk in thought,
    Backwards I look with mine forward gate,
    yet remain where aged reason doth go naught.  

    O yes.Tis a bell that tolls most broken,
    Tuned to harmonium unsung voices feign
    dissonant words which wither unspoken,
    then are caught in a snare of yesterday's swain.  

    I hath been half in love with easeful death,
    Coaxed with wine and silver smoking depart,
    I live still, though she hath stolen mine breath,
    Tis the unspoken words that twas her art.  

    If ever a scar can heal with time,
    Maybe once more the bell will chime.


Links https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/573tfc/sunday_morning_11_oclock/d8pbsw6

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/5734pr/come_back/d8pc0ek

The Bell