From myself—me—that I should bring thee proof

That falls in well with mine, and certes brought

Too calm and sad a face in front of thine;

The love I bear thee, finding words enough,

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech

Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak,

And which, when rising up from breast to brow,

On me thou lookest with no doubting care,

In words, of love hid in me out of reach.

Nay, let the silence of my womanhood

XV

Since sorrow hath shut me safe in loves divine,

Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought

May be un9９ｌiｂ•ｎｅtwrought so. Neither love me for

Between our faces, to cast light on each?—

This weary minstrel-life that once was girt

A melancholy music,—why advert

And to spread wing and fly in the outer air

XIV

But love me for loves sake, that evermore

To pipe now gainst the valley nightingale

Hadst set me an example, shown me how,

To live on still in love, and yet in vain,—

Thine own dear pitys wiping my cheeks dry,—

Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear

By a most dauntless, voicele

www•9９ｌiｂ.neｔ

ss fortitude,

And yet, because I love thee, I obtain

Doth crown me with a ruby large enow

This love even, all my worth, to the uttermost,

I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale

To draw mens eyes and prove the inner cost,—

When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,

A sense of pleasant ease on such a day—

To fail so. But I look on thee—on thee—

Commend my woman-love to thy belief,—

And placed it by thee on a golden throne,—

And therefore if to love can be desert,

To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail

Of love even, as a good thing of my own:

Were most impossible failure, if I strove

From that same love this vindicating grace,

Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed,

For these things in themselves, Beloved, may

My hand to hold my spirit so far off

XI

Over the rivers to the bitter sea.

As these you see, and trembling knees that fail

As one who sits and gazes from above,

If thou must love me, let it be for nought

Except for loves sake only. Do not say

Is by thee only, whom I love alone.

And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak

I am not of thy worth nor for thy place!

And rend the garment of my life, in brief,

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!

XII

A creature might forget to weep, who bore

I should not love withal, unless that thou

To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face.

And hold the torch out, while the winds are rough,

For we two look two ways, and cannot shine

I drop it at thy 99lib.netfeet. I cannot teach

As on a bee shut in a crystalline;

And that I love (O soul, we must be meek!)

Hearing oblivion beyond memory;

To bear the burden of a heavy heart,—

Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief

XIII

With the same sunlight on our brow and hair.

Beholding, besides love, the end of love,

Be changed, or change for thee,—and love, so wrought,

I love her for her smile—her look—her way

Indeed this very love which is my boast,

To these things? O Beloved, it is plain

Thou mayst love on, through loves eternity.