I.
My love, this is the bitterest, that thou---Who art all truth, and who dost love me now As thine eyes say, as thy voice breaks to say---Shouldst love so truly, and couldst love me still A whole long life through, had but love its will, Would death that leads me from thee brook delay.
II.
I have but to be by thee, and thy hand Will never let mine go, nor heart withstand The beating of my heart to reach its place.
When shall I look for thee and feel thee gone?
When cry for the old comfort and find none?
Never, I know! Thy soul is in thy face.
III.
Oh, I should fade---'tis willed so! Might I save, Gladly I would, whatever beauty gave Joy to thy sense, for that was precious too.
It is not to be granted. But the soul Whence the love comes, all ravage leaves that whole;Vainly the flesh fades; soul makes all things new.
IV.
It would not be because my eye grew dim Thou couldst not find the love there, thanks to Him Who never is dishonoured in the spark He gave us from his fire of fires, and bade Remember whence it sprang, nor be afraid While that burns on, though all the rest grow dark.
V.
So, how thou wouldst be perfect, white and clean Outside as inside, soul and soul's demesne Alike, this body given to show it by!
Oh, three-parts through the worst of life's abyss, What plaudits from the next world after this, Couldst thou repeat a stroke and gain the sky!
VI.
And is it not the bitterer to think That, disengage our hands and thou wilt sink Although thy love was love in very deed?
I know that nature! Pass a festive day, Thou dost not throw its relic-flower away Nor bid its music's loitering echo speed.
VII.
Thou let'st the stranger's glove lie where it fell;If old things remain old things all is well, For thou art grateful as becomes man best And hadst thou only heard me play one tune, Or viewed me from a window, not so soon With thee would such things fade as with the rest.
VIII.
I seem to see! We meet and part; 'tis brief;
The book I opened keeps a folded leaf, The very chair I sat on, breaks the rank That is a portrait of me on the wall---Three lines, my face comes at so slight a call:
And for all this, one little hour to thank!
IX.
But now, because the hour through years was fixed, Because our inmost beings met and mixed, Because thou once hast loved me---wilt thou dare Say to thy soul and Who may list beside, ``Therefore she is immortally my bride;``Chance cannot change my love, nor time impair.
X.
``So, what if in the dusk of life that's left, ``I, a tired traveller of my sun bereft, Look from my path when, mimicking the same, ``The fire-fly glimpses past me, come and gone?
``---Where was it till the sunset? where anon ``It will be at the sunrise! What's to blame?''
XI.
Is it so helpful to thee? Canst thou take The mimic up, nor, for the true thing's sake, Put gently by such efforts at a beam?
Is the remainder of the way so long, Thou need'st the little solace, thou the strong Watch out thy watch, let weak ones doze and dream!
XII.
---Ah, but the fresher faces! ``Is it true,''
Thou'lt ask, ``some eyes are beautiful and new?
``Some hair,---how can one choose but grasp such wealth?
``And if a man would press his lips to lips ``Fresh as the wilding hedge-rose-cup there slips ``The dew-drop out of, must it be by stealth?
XIII.
``It cannot change the love still kept for Her, ``More than if such a picture I prefer ``Passing a day with, to a room's bare side:
The painted form takes nothing she possessed, Yet, while the Titian's Venus lies at rest, A man looks. Once more, what is there to chide?''
XIV.
So must I see, from where I sit and watch, My own self sell myself, my hand attach Its warrant to the very thefts from me---Thy singleness of soul that made me proud, Thy purity of heart I loved aloud, Thy man's-truth I was bold to bid God see!
XV.
Love so, then, if thou wilt! Give all thou canst Away to the new faces---disentranced, (Say it and think it) obdurate no more:
Re-issue looks and words from the old mint, Pass them afresh, no matter whose the print Image and superscription once they bore XVI.
Re-coin thyself and give it them to spend,---It all comes to the same thing at the end, Since mine thou wast, mine art and mine shalt be, Faithful or faithless, scaling up the sum Or lavish of my treasure, thou must come Back to the heart's place here I keep for thee!
XVII.
Only, why should it be with stain at all?
Why must I, 'twixt the leaves of coronal, Put any kiss of pardon on thy brow?
Why need the other women know so much, And talk together, ``Such the look and such ``The smile he used to love with, then as now!''
XVIII.
Might I die last and show thee! Should I find Such hardship in the few years left behind, If free to take and light my lamp, and go Into thy tomb, and shut the door and sit, Seeing thy face on those four sides of it The better that they are so blank, I know!
XIX.
Why, time was what I wanted, to turn o'er Within my mind each look, get more and more By heart each word, too much to learn at first;And join thee all the fitter for the pause 'Neath the low doorway's lintel. That were cause For lingering, though thou calledst, if I durst!
XX.
And yet thou art the nobler of us two What dare I dream of, that thou canst not do, Outstripping my ten small steps with one stride?
I'll say then, here's a trial and a task---Is it to bear?---if easy, I'll not ask:
Though love fail, I can trust on in thy pride.
XXI.
Pride?---when those eyes forestall the life behind The death I have to go through!---when I find, Now that I want thy help most, all of thee!
What did I fear? Thy love shall hold me fast Until the little minute's sleep is past And I wake saved.---And yet it will not be!
