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Unlike are we, unlike, O princely heart, unlike our uses
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and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surprise on
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one another as they strike athwart their wings in passing. Thou,
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bethink thee, art a guest for queens to social pageantries,
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with gauges from a hundred brighter eyes than tears even
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can make mine to play thy part of chief musician.
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What hast thou to do? with looking from the lattice
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lights at me, a poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through
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the dark and leaning up a cypress tree. The chrism
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is on thine head, on mine, the dew, and death
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must dig the level where these agree. Thou hast thy
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calling to some palace floor, most gracious singer of high poems,
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where the dancers will break footing from the care of
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watching up thy pregnant lips for more. And dost thou
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lift this house's latch too poor for hand of thine?
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And canst thou think and bear to let thy music
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drop here unaware in folds of golden fullness at my door?
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Look up and see the casement broken in, the bats
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and owlets builders in the roof, my cricket chirps against
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thy mandolin. Hush, call no echo up in further proof
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of desolation. There's a voice within that weeps. as thou
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must sing, alone, aloof. I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,
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as once Electra her sepulchral urn, and looking in thine
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eyes I overturn the ashes at thy feet. Behold, and see,
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what a great heap of grief lay hid in me,
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and how the red wild sparkles dimly burn through the
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ashen grayness. If thy foot in scorn could tread them
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out to darkness utterly, it might be well, perhaps. But
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if instead thou wait beside me for the wind to blow,
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the grey dust up, those laurels on thine head, O
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my Belaved, will not shield thee so, that none of
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all the fires shall scorch and shred the hair beneath.
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Stand further off, then. Go, go from me. yet I
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feel that I shall stand henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore
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alone upon the threshold of my door of individual life
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I shall command, the uses of my soul nor lift
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my hand serenely in the sunshine as before, without the
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sense of that which I forbore thy touch upon the palm.
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The widest land doom takes to part us, leaves thy
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heart in mine, with pulses that beat double. What I do,
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and what I dream include thee, as the wine must
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taste of its own grapes. And when I sue God
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for myself, he hears that name of thine, and sees
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within my eyes the tears of two. The face of
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all the world is changed, I think, since first I
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heard the footsteps of thy soul. Move still, oh, still.
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Beside me, as they stole betwixt me and the dreadful
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outer brink of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,
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was caught up into love and taught the whole of
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life in a new rhythm, the cup of dole God
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gave for baptism, I am fain to drink and praise
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its sweetness, sweet with thee anear. The names of country, heaven,
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are changed away, for where thou art or shalt be
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is there or here, and this, this lute and song.
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Loved yesterday, the singing angels know are only dear, because
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thy name moves right in what they say. What can
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I give thee back, O liberal, and princely giver who
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hast brought the gold and purple of thine heart, unstained, untold,
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and laid them on the outside of the wall, for
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such as I to take or leave withal, in unexpected largesse?
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Am I cold, ungrateful, that for these most manifold high
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gifts I render nothing back at all? Not so, not cold,
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but very poor instead. Ask God who knows. For frequent
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tears have run, the colors from my life, and left
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so dead, and pale as stuff it were not fitly
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done to give the same as pillow to thy head.
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Go farther. that it serve to trample on, can it
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be right to give what I can give? To let
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thee sit beneath the fall of tears, as salt as mine,
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and hear the sighing years, resighing on my lips renunciative
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through those infrequent smiles which fail to live for all
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thy adjurations. Oh, my fears, that this can scarce be right.
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We are not peers, so to be lovers. and I
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own and grieve, that givers of such gifts as mine are,
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must be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas! I will
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not soil thy purple with my dust, nor breathe my
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poison on thy Venice glass, nor give thee any love
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which were unjust. Beloved, I only love thee, let it pass.
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Yet love, mere love, is beautiful indeed, and worthy of acceptation.
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Fire is bright. Let temple burn or flax. An equal
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light leaps in the flame from cedar plank or weed.
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And love is fire. And when I say at need,
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I love thee, mark. I love thee. In thy sight
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I stand transfigured, glorified aright, with conscience of the new
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rays that proceed out of my face toward thine. There's
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nothing low in love when love the lowest is. meanest
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creatures who love God, God accepts while loving so. And
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what I feel, across the inferior features of what I
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am doth flash itself, and show how that great work
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of love enhances nature's. And therefore if to love can
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be desert, I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale
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as these you see, and trembling knees that fail to
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bear the burden of a heavy heart, this weary minstrel
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life that once was girt to climb Ornus, and can
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scarce avail to pipe now gainst the valley nightingale, a
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melancholy music, why advert to these things? O beloved, it
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is plain I am not of thy worth, nor for
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thy place. And yet, because I love thee, I obtain
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from that same love this vindicating grace, to live on
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still in love, and yet in vain, to bless thee,
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yet renounce thee to thy face. Indeed this very love
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which is my boast, and which, when rising up from
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breast to brow, doth crown me with a ruby large
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enow to draw men's eyes and prove the inner cost,
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this love even all my worth, to the uttermost, I
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should not love withal, unless that thou hadst set me
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an example, shown me how, when first thine earnest eyes
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with mine were crossed, and love called love. And thus
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I cannot speak of love even as a good thing
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of my own. Thy soul hath snatched up mine all
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faint and weak, and placed it by thee on a
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golden throne, and that I love, O soul, we must
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be meek. is by thee only whom I love alone.
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And wilt thou have me fashion into speech, the love
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I bear thee finding words enough, and hold the torch out,
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while the winds are rough, between our faces, to cast
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light on each? I drop it at thy feet. I
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cannot teach, my hand to hold my spirit so far off,
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from myself, me. that I should bring thee proof in
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words of love hid in me out of reach. Nay,
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let the silence of my womanhood commend my woman-love to
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thy belief, seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed, and
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rend the garment of my life, in brief, by a
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most dauntless, voiceless fortitude, lest one touch of this heart
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convey its grief. If thou must love me, let it
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be for naught, except for love's sake only. Do not say,
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I love her for her smile, her look, her way,
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of speaking gently for a trick of thought, that falls
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in well with mine, and certes brought a sense of
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pleasant ease on such a day, for these things in themselves, beloved,
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may be changed or change for thee, and love, so wrought,
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may be unwrought so. neither love me for thine own
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dear pities wiping my cheeks dry. A creature might forget
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to weep, who bore thy comfort long, and lose thy
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love thereby. But love me for love's sake, that evermore
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thou mayst love on. through love's eternity. Accuse me not,
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beseech thee, that I wear too calm and sad a
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face in front of thine, for we two look two ways,
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and cannot shine with the same sunlight on our brow
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and hair. On me thou lookest with no doubting care,
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as on a bee shut in a crystalline, since sorrow
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hath shut me safe in love's divine, and to spread
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wing and fly in the outer air were most impossible
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failure if I strove to fail so. But I look
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on thee, on thee, beholding besides love the end of love,
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hearing oblivion beyond memory, as one who sits and gazes
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from above over the rivers to the bitter sea. And yet,
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because thou overcometh so, Because thou art more noble and
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like a king, thou canst prevail against my fears and
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fling thy purple round me, till my heart shall grow
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too close against thine heart henceforth to know how it
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shook when alone. Why, conquering may prove as lordly and
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complete a thing, in lifting upward as in crushing low.
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And as a vanquished soldier yields his sword to one
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who lifts him from the bloody earth, Even so, beloved,
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I at last record, here ends my strife. If thou
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invite me forth, I rise above abasement at the word.
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Make thy love larger to enlarge my worth. My poet,
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thou canst touch on all the notes God set between
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his after and before, and strike up and strike off
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the general roar of the rushing world's a melody that
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floats in a serene air purely. Antidotes of medicated music,
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answering for mankind's forlornest uses, thou canst pour from thence
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into their ears. God's will devotes thine to such ends,
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and mine to wait on thine. How dearest wilt thou
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have me for most use? A hope to sing by gladly,
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or a fine sad memory with thy songs to interfuse?
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a shade in which to sing, of palm or pine,
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a grave on which to rest from singing, choose. I
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never gave a lock of hair away, to a man dearest,
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except this to thee, which now upon my fingers thoughtfully
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I wring out to the full brown length and say,
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take it. My day of youth went yesterday, my hair
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no longer bounds to my foot's glee, nor plant I
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it from rose or myrtle tree, as girls do any more,
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it only may, now shade on two pale cheeks the
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mark of tears, taut drooping from the head that hangs
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aside through sorrow's trick. I thought the funeral shears would
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take this first, but love is justified. Take it thou,
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finding pure from all those years, the kiss my mother
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left here when she died. The soul's rialto hath its merchandise.
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I barter curl for curl upon that mart, and from
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my poet's forehead to my heart receive this lock which
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outweighs Argosy's. As purply black as erst to Pindar's eyes,
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the dim purpurial tresses gloom to thwart the nine white
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muse brows. For this counterpart, the bay crown's shade, beloved,
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I surmise, still lingers on thy curl, it is so black. Thus,
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with a fillet of smooth kissing breath, I tie the
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shadows safe from gliding back, and lay the gift where
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nothing hindereth, here on my heart as on thy brow,
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to lack no natural heat till mine grows cold in death. Beloved,
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my beloved, when I think that thou wast in the
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world a year ago, what time I sat alone here
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in the snow, and saw no footprint, heard the silence sink,
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no moment at thy voice, but link by link, when
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counting all my chains as if that so, they never
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could fall off at any blow, struck by thy possible hand,
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why thus I drink, of life's great cup of wonder. Wonderful,
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never to feel thee thrill the day or night, with
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personal act or speech, nor ever cull, some presence of
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thee with the blossoms white thou sawest growing. Atheists are
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as dull, who cannot guess God's presence out of sight.
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Say over again, and yet once over again, that thou
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dost love me. Though the word repeated should seem a
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cuckoo song as thou dost treat it, remember, never to
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the hill or plain, valley and wood without her cuckoo strain,
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comes the fresh spring in all her green completed. Beloved,
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I amid the darkness greeted, by a doubtful spirit voice,
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in that doubt's pain, cry, speak once more, thou lovest,
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who can fear, too many stars, though each in heaven
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shall roll, too many flowers, though each shall crown the year,
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say thou dost love me, love me, love me, toll
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the silver iterance, only minding dear, to love me also
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in silence with thy soul. When our two souls stand
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up erect and strong, face to face, silent, drawing nigh
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and nigher, until the lengthening wings break into fire, at
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either curvied point, what bitter wrong can the earth do
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to us, that we should not long be here contented? Think,
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in mounting higher, the angels would press on us and aspire.
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to drop some golden orb of perfect song into our deep,
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dear silence. Let us stay, rather on earth, beloved, where
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the unfit, contrarious moods of men recoil away and isolate
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pure spirits and permit a place to stand and love
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in for a day with darkness and the death hour
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rounding it. Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
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Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine? And would
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the sun for thee more coldly shine because of grave
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damps falling round my head? I marveled, my Belaved, when
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I read thy thought so in the letter. I am thine,
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but so much to thee. Can I pour thy wine
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while my hands tremble? Then my soul, instead of dreams
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of death, resumes life's lower range. Then love me, Love,
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look on me. As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
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for love to give up acres and degree, I yield
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the grave for thy sake and exchange my near sweet
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view of heaven for earth with thee. Let the world's
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sharpness like a clasping knife shut in upon itself and
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do no harm in this close hand of love now
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soft and warm. and let us hear no sound of
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human strife, after the click of the shutting. Life to life,
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I lean upon thee, dear, without alarm, and feel as
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safe as guarded by a charm against the stab of worldlings, who,
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if rife, are weak to injure. Very whitely still, the
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lilies of our lives may reassure their blossoms from their roots.
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accessible alone to heavenly dues that drop not fewer, growing straight,
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out of man's reach, on the hill. God only, who
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made us rich, can make us poor. A heavy heart, beloved,
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have I borne, from year to year until I saw
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thy face, and sorrow after sorrow took the place, of
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all those natural joys as lightly worn, as the stringed
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pearls each lifted in its turn by a beating heart
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at dance-time. Hopes apace were changed to long despairs, till
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God's own grace could scarcely lift above the world forlorn
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my heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring, and
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let it drop adown thy calmly great deep being. Fast
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it sinketh as a thing which its own nature does precipitate,
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while thine doth close above it, mediating betwixt the stars
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and the unaccomplished fate. I lived with visions for my company,
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instead of men and women years ago, and found them
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gentle mates, nor thought to know a sweeter music than
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they played to me. But soon their trailing purple was
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not free, of this world's dust, their lutes did silent grow,
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and I myself grew faint and blind below their vanishing eyes.
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Sure own Then thou didst come to be, beloved, what
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they seemed. Their shining fronts, their songs, their splendors, better
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yet the same, as river water hallowed into fonts, met
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in thee, and from out thee overcame, my soul with
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satisfaction of all wonders. because God's gifts put man's best
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dreams to shame. My own beloved, who hast lifted me,
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from this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,
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and in betwixt the languid ringlets blown a life-breath, till
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the forehead hopefully shines out again, as all the angels see,
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before thy saving kiss, my own, my own, who camest
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to me when the world was gone, and I who
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looked for only God found thee, I find thee, I
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am safe and strong and glad. As one who stands
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in doeless Asphodel looks backward on the tedious time he
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had in the upper life, so I with bosom swell
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make witness, here between the good and bad, that love,
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as strong as death, retrieves as well. My letters, all
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dead paper, mute and white, and yet they seem alive
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and quivering against my tremulous hands which loose the string
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and let them drop down on my knee tonight. This said,
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he wished to have me in his sight once as
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a friend, this fixed a day in spring, to come
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and touch my hand, a simple thing, yet I wept
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for it. This, the paper's light, said, Dear, I love thee,
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and I sank and quailed, as if God's future thundered
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on my past. This said, I am thine, and so
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its ink has paled, with lying at my heart that
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beat too fast, and this, O love, thy words have
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ill availed, if what this said I dared repeat at last.
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I think of thee. My thoughts do twine and bud.
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About thee, as wild vines about a tree, put out
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broad leaves and soon there's naught to see except the
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straggling green which hides the wood. Yet, O my palm tree,
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be it understood I will not have my thoughts instead
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of thee, who are dearer, better. Rather, instantly, renew thy presence,
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as a strong tree should, rustle thy boughs and set
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thy trunk all bare, and let these bands of greenery
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which ensphere thee drop heavily down, burst, shattered everywhere. Because
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in this deep joy to see and hear thee, and
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breathe within thy shadow a new air, I do not
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think of thee, I am too near thee. I see
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thine image through my tears tonight, and yet today I
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saw thee smiling. How refer the cause, beloved? Is it
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thou or I who makes me sad? The acolyte amid
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the chanted joy and thankful right may so fall flat
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with pale insensate brow on the altar stair. I hear
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thy voice and vow, perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out
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of sight. as he, in his swooning ears, the choir's amen. Beloved,
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dost thou love? Or did I see all the glory
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as I dreamed, and fainted when too vehement light dilated
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my ideal, for my soul's eyes? Will that light come again,
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as now these tears come falling hot and real? Thou comest,
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all is said without a word. I sit beneath thy looks,
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as children do, in the noon sun with souls that
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tremble through, their happy eyelids from an unaverred yet prodigal
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inward joy. Behold, I erred in that last doubt. And
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yet I cannot rue, the sin most but the occasion,
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that we two should for a moment stand unministered by
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a mutual presence. Ah, Keep near and close, thou dove-like help.
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And when my fears would rise with thy broad heart
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serenely interpose, brood down with thy divine sufficiencies, these thoughts
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which tremble when bereft of those, like callow birds left
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desert to the skies. The first time that the sun
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rose on thine oath, to love me, I looked forward
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to the moon. to slacken all those bonds which seemed
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too soon, and quickly tied to make a lasting troth.
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Quick loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe, and looking
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on myself, I seemed not one for such man's love.
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More like an out-of-tune worn vial, a good singer would
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be wroth, to spoil his song with, and which, snatched
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in haste, is laid down at the first ill-sounding note.
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I did not wrong myself so, but I placed a
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wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float nith master
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hands from instruments defaced, and great souls, at one stroke,
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may do and dote. Yes, call me by my pet name.
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Let me hear the name I used to run at,
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when a child, from innocent play, and leave the cowslips plied,
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to glance up in some face that proved me dear
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with the look of its eyes. I miss the clear,
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fond voices which, being drawn and reconciled into the music
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of heavens undefiled, call me no longer. Silence on the bier,
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while I call God, call God, so let thy mouth
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be air to those who are now exanimate. Gather the
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north flowers to complete the south. and catch the early
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love up in the late. Yes, call me by that name,
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and I, in truth, with the same heart, will answer
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and not wait. With the same heart, I said, I'll
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answer thee. As those when thou shalt call me by
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my name, lo, the vain promise is the same, the same,
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perplexed and ruffled by life's strategy. WHEN CALLED BEFORE I
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TOLD HOW HASTILY I DROPPED MY FLOWERS OR BREAK OFF
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FROM A GAME, TO RUN AND ANSWER WITH THE SMILE
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THAT CAME AT PLAY LAST MOMENT AND WENT ON WITH
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ME THROUGH MY OBEDIENCE. WHEN I ANSWER NOW I DROP
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A GRAVE THOUGHT, BREAK FROM SOLITUDE, YET STILL MY HEART
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GOES TO THEE, PONDER HOW, NOT AS TO A SINGLE
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GOOD BUT ALL MY GOOD. Lay thy hand on it,
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best one, and allow that no child's foot could run
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fast as this blood. If I leave all for thee,
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wilt thou exchange and be all to me? Shall I
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never miss home-talk and blessing, and the common kiss that
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comes to each in turn, nor count it strange, when
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I look up to drop on a new range of
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walls and floors, another home than this. Nay, wilt thou
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fill that place by me which is filled by dead
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eyes too tender to know change, that's hardest. If to
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conquer love has tried, to conquer grief tries more, as
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all things prove, for grief indeed is love and grief beside. Alas,
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I have grieved, so I am hard to love. Yet
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love me, wilt thou, open thy heart wide, and fold
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within the wet wings of thy dove. When we met first,
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and loved, I did not build upon the event with marble.
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Could it mean to last, a love set pendulous between
377
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sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled, distrusting every light
378
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that seemed to gild the onward path, and feared to
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overlean a finger even. And though I have grown serene
380
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and strong since then, I think that God has willed
381
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a still renewable fear, O love, O troth. Lest these
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00:28:41.559 --> 00:28:46.160
enclasped hands should never hold, This mutual kiss drop down
383
00:28:46.220 --> 00:28:50.279
between us both, As an unowned thing, once the lips
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being cold, And love be false. If he to keep
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one oath, Must lose one joy by his life's star foretold. Pardon,
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00:29:04.009 --> 00:29:07.779
O pardon, that my soul should make Of all that
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strong divineness which I know, For thine and thee an
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00:29:11.940 --> 00:29:14.940
image only so formed of the sand, And fit to
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00:29:15.039 --> 00:29:19.299
shift and break. It is that distant years which did
390
00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:23.670
not take thy sovereignty, Recoiling with a blow, have forced
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00:29:23.730 --> 00:29:27.210
my swimming brain to undergo their doubt and dread, and
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blindly to forsake thy purity of likeness, and distort thy
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worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit. As if a shipwrecked pagan,
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safe in port, his guardian said, to commemorate, should set
395
00:29:42.170 --> 00:29:46.509
a sculptured porpoise, gills a snort, and vibrant tail within
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the temple gate. First time he kissed me, he but
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00:29:52.509 --> 00:29:55.890
only kissed the fingers of this hand wherewith I write,
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00:29:56.970 --> 00:30:01.369
and ever since it grew more clean and white. Slow
399
00:30:01.430 --> 00:30:05.410
to world greetings, quick with its O-list, when the angels speak.
400
00:30:06.430 --> 00:30:09.549
A ring of amethyst I could not wear here, plainer
401
00:30:09.589 --> 00:30:13.849
to my sight than that first kiss. The second passed
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00:30:13.910 --> 00:30:18.410
in height, the first, and sought the forehead, and half missed,
403
00:30:18.970 --> 00:30:24.880
half falling on the hair. O beyond mead! That was
404
00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:29.650
the chrism of love, which love's own crowned. with sanctifying
405
00:30:29.730 --> 00:30:34.279
sweetness did proceed, the third upon my lips was folded down,
406
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in perfect, purple state, since when, indeed, I have been
407
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proud and said, My love, my own. Because thou hast
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the power and own'st the grace to look through and
409
00:30:51.039 --> 00:30:54.779
behind this mask of me, against which years have beat
410
00:30:54.819 --> 00:30:59.049
thus blanchingly with their reigns, and behold my soul's true face,
411
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the dim and weary witness of life's race, because thou
412
00:31:03.289 --> 00:31:06.150
hast the faith and love to see, through that same
413
00:31:06.259 --> 00:31:10.400
soul's distracting lethargy, the patient angel waiting for a place
414
00:31:10.839 --> 00:31:14.539
in the new heavens, because nor sin, nor woe, nor
415
00:31:14.579 --> 00:31:21.660
God's infliction, nor death's neighborhood, nor all which others' viewing
416
00:31:21.799 --> 00:31:26.109
turned to go, nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,
417
00:31:26.650 --> 00:31:33.549
nothing repels thee, surusud. Dearest, teach me so, to pour
418
00:31:33.609 --> 00:31:38.210
out gratitude as thou dost good. Oh yes, they love
419
00:31:38.309 --> 00:31:42.210
through all this world of ours. I will not gainsay love,
420
00:31:42.849 --> 00:31:46.349
called love for sooth. I have heard love talked in
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00:31:46.390 --> 00:31:49.849
my early youth, and since not so long back, but
422
00:31:49.869 --> 00:31:56.720
that the flowers then gathered, smell still. Musulmans and Jeors
423
00:31:56.759 --> 00:32:00.089
throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth for
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00:32:00.190 --> 00:32:04.509
any weeping. Polypheme's white tooth slips on the nut if,
425
00:32:05.269 --> 00:32:10.009
after frequent showers, the shell is over-smooth, and not so
426
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:13.500
much will turn the thing called love aside to hate
427
00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:18.339
or else to oblivion. But thou art not such a lover,
428
00:32:18.400 --> 00:32:23.180
my beloved. Thou canst wait through sorrow and sickness to
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00:32:23.220 --> 00:32:27.130
bring souls to touch. and think it soon when others cry,
430
00:32:28.130 --> 00:32:32.950
too late. I thank all who have loved me in
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00:32:32.990 --> 00:32:38.160
their hearts, with thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks
432
00:32:38.500 --> 00:32:40.960
to all who paused a little near the prison wall,
433
00:32:41.640 --> 00:32:44.119
to hear my music in its louder parts ere they
434
00:32:44.160 --> 00:32:47.789
went onward, each one to the mart's or temple's occupation,
435
00:32:48.200 --> 00:32:53.130
beyond call. But thou, who in my voices sink and fall,
436
00:32:53.789 --> 00:32:57.339
when the sob took it, thy divinest art's own instrument
437
00:32:57.380 --> 00:33:00.440
didst drop down at thy foot, to hearken what I
438
00:33:00.519 --> 00:33:07.069
said between my tears. Instruct me how to thank thee, oh,
439
00:33:07.869 --> 00:33:11.430
to shoot my soul's full meaning into future years, that
440
00:33:11.450 --> 00:33:14.849
they should lend it utterance and salute love that endures
441
00:33:15.329 --> 00:33:21.630
from life that disappears. My future will not copy fair
442
00:33:21.670 --> 00:33:25.630
my past, I wrote that once. and thinking at my side,
443
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my ministering life-angel justified the word by his appealing look
444
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:32.960
upcast to the white throne of God, I turned at last,
445
00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:37.240
and there instead saw thee, not unallied to angels in
446
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:42.059
thy soul. Then I long tried by natural ills received
447
00:33:42.099 --> 00:33:45.720
the comfort fast, while budding at thy sight my pilgrim
448
00:33:45.769 --> 00:33:51.930
staff gave out green leaves with morning dews imperiled. I
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00:33:51.990 --> 00:33:55.450
seek no copy now of life's first half. Leave here
450
00:33:55.490 --> 00:33:58.890
the pages with long musing curled, and write me new
451
00:33:58.950 --> 00:34:03.549
my future's epigraph, new angel mine, unhoped for in the world.
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00:34:06.279 --> 00:34:08.949
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
453
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I love thee to the depth and breadth and height,
454
00:34:13.300 --> 00:34:16.719
my soul can reach when feeling out of sight, for
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00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:20.780
the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee
456
00:34:20.820 --> 00:34:23.500
to the level of every day's most quiet need by
457
00:34:23.579 --> 00:34:27.400
sun and candlelight. I love thee freely as men strive
458
00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:31.019
for right. I love thee purely as they turn from praise.
459
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:35.239
I love thee with the passion put to use, in
460
00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:41.590
my old griefs and with my childhood's faith. I love
461
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thee with a love I seem to lose. With my
462
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lost saints, I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears
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of all my life. And if God choose, I shall
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00:34:51.320 --> 00:34:57.550
but love thee better after death. Beloved, thou hast brought
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me many flowers, plucked in the garden, all the summer through,
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and winter, and it seemed as if they grew, in
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00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:10.980
this close room, nor missed the sun and showers. So,
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in the like name of that love of ours, take
469
00:35:13.800 --> 00:35:17.260
back these thoughts which here unfolded too, and which on
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warm and cold days I withdrew from my heart's ground. Indeed,
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those beds and bowers, be overgrown with bitter weeds and rue,
472
00:35:28.980 --> 00:35:34.389
and wait thy weeding, yet here's eglantine, here's ivy, take them,
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as I used to do thy flowers, and keep them
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where they shall not pine. Instruct thine eyes to keep
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their colors true, and tell thy soul their roots are
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left in mine.
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Unlike are we, unlike, O princely heart, unlike our uses
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and our destinies. Our ministering two angels look surprise on
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one another as they strike athwart their wings in passing. Thou,
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bethink thee, art a guest for queens to social pageantries,
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with gauges from a hundred brighter eyes than tears even
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can make mine to play thy part of chief musician.
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What hast thou to do? with looking from the lattice
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lights at me, a poor, tired, wandering singer, singing through
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the dark and leaning up a cypress tree. The chrism
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is on thine head, on mine, the dew, and death
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00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:49.100
must dig the level where these agree. Thou hast thy
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calling to some palace floor, most gracious singer of high poems,
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where the dancers will break footing from the care of
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watching up thy pregnant lips for more. And dost thou
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lift this house's latch too poor for hand of thine?
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And canst thou think and bear to let thy music
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drop here unaware in folds of golden fullness at my door?
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Look up and see the casement broken in, the bats
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and owlets builders in the roof, my cricket chirps against
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thy mandolin. Hush, call no echo up in further proof
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of desolation. There's a voice within that weeps. as thou
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must sing, alone, aloof. I lift my heavy heart up solemnly,
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as once Electra her sepulchral urn, and looking in thine
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eyes I overturn the ashes at thy feet. Behold, and see,
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what a great heap of grief lay hid in me,
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and how the red wild sparkles dimly burn through the
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ashen grayness. If thy foot in scorn could tread them
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out to darkness utterly, it might be well, perhaps. But
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if instead thou wait beside me for the wind to blow,
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the grey dust up, those laurels on thine head, O
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my Belaved, will not shield thee so, that none of
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all the fires shall scorch and shred the hair beneath.
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Stand further off, then. Go, go from me. yet I
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feel that I shall stand henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore
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alone upon the threshold of my door of individual life
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I shall command, the uses of my soul nor lift
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my hand serenely in the sunshine as before, without the
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sense of that which I forbore thy touch upon the palm.
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The widest land doom takes to part us, leaves thy
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heart in mine, with pulses that beat double. What I do,
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and what I dream include thee, as the wine must
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taste of its own grapes. And when I sue God
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for myself, he hears that name of thine, and sees
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within my eyes the tears of two. The face of
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all the world is changed, I think, since first I
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heard the footsteps of thy soul. Move still, oh, still.
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Beside me, as they stole betwixt me and the dreadful
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outer brink of obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,
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was caught up into love and taught the whole of
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life in a new rhythm, the cup of dole God
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gave for baptism, I am fain to drink and praise
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its sweetness, sweet with thee anear. The names of country, heaven,
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are changed away, for where thou art or shalt be
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is there or here, and this, this lute and song.
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Loved yesterday, the singing angels know are only dear, because
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thy name moves right in what they say. What can
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I give thee back, O liberal, and princely giver who
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hast brought the gold and purple of thine heart, unstained, untold,
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and laid them on the outside of the wall, for
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such as I to take or leave withal, in unexpected largesse?
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Am I cold, ungrateful, that for these most manifold high
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gifts I render nothing back at all? Not so, not cold,
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but very poor instead. Ask God who knows. For frequent
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tears have run, the colors from my life, and left
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so dead, and pale as stuff it were not fitly
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done to give the same as pillow to thy head.
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Go farther. that it serve to trample on, can it
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be right to give what I can give? To let
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thee sit beneath the fall of tears, as salt as mine,
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and hear the sighing years, resighing on my lips renunciative
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through those infrequent smiles which fail to live for all
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thy adjurations. Oh, my fears, that this can scarce be right.
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We are not peers, so to be lovers. and I
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own and grieve, that givers of such gifts as mine are,
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must be counted with the ungenerous. Out, alas! I will
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not soil thy purple with my dust, nor breathe my
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poison on thy Venice glass, nor give thee any love
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which were unjust. Beloved, I only love thee, let it pass.
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Yet love, mere love, is beautiful indeed, and worthy of acceptation.
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Fire is bright. Let temple burn or flax. An equal
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light leaps in the flame from cedar plank or weed.
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And love is fire. And when I say at need,
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I love thee, mark. I love thee. In thy sight
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I stand transfigured, glorified aright, with conscience of the new
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rays that proceed out of my face toward thine. There's
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nothing low in love when love the lowest is. meanest
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creatures who love God, God accepts while loving so. And
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what I feel, across the inferior features of what I
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am doth flash itself, and show how that great work
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of love enhances nature's. And therefore if to love can
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be desert, I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale
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as these you see, and trembling knees that fail to
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bear the burden of a heavy heart, this weary minstrel
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life that once was girt to climb Ornus, and can
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scarce avail to pipe now gainst the valley nightingale, a
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melancholy music, why advert to these things? O beloved, it
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is plain I am not of thy worth, nor for
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thy place. And yet, because I love thee, I obtain
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from that same love this vindicating grace, to live on
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still in love, and yet in vain, to bless thee,
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yet renounce thee to thy face. Indeed this very love
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which is my boast, and which, when rising up from
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breast to brow, doth crown me with a ruby large
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enow to draw men's eyes and prove the inner cost,
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this love even all my worth, to the uttermost, I
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should not love withal, unless that thou hadst set me
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an example, shown me how, when first thine earnest eyes
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with mine were crossed, and love called love. And thus
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I cannot speak of love even as a good thing
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of my own. Thy soul hath snatched up mine all
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faint and weak, and placed it by thee on a
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golden throne, and that I love, O soul, we must
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be meek. is by thee only whom I love alone.
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And wilt thou have me fashion into speech, the love
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I bear thee finding words enough, and hold the torch out,
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while the winds are rough, between our faces, to cast
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light on each? I drop it at thy feet. I
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cannot teach, my hand to hold my spirit so far off,
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from myself, me. that I should bring thee proof in
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words of love hid in me out of reach. Nay,
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let the silence of my womanhood commend my woman-love to
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thy belief, seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed, and
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rend the garment of my life, in brief, by a
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most dauntless, voiceless fortitude, lest one touch of this heart
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convey its grief. If thou must love me, let it
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be for naught, except for love's sake only. Do not say,
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I love her for her smile, her look, her way,
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of speaking gently for a trick of thought, that falls
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in well with mine, and certes brought a sense of
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pleasant ease on such a day, for these things in themselves, beloved,
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may be changed or change for thee, and love, so wrought,
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may be unwrought so. neither love me for thine own
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dear pities wiping my cheeks dry. A creature might forget
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to weep, who bore thy comfort long, and lose thy
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love thereby. But love me for love's sake, that evermore
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thou mayst love on. through love's eternity. Accuse me not,
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beseech thee, that I wear too calm and sad a
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face in front of thine, for we two look two ways,
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and cannot shine with the same sunlight on our brow
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and hair. On me thou lookest with no doubting care,
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as on a bee shut in a crystalline, since sorrow
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hath shut me safe in love's divine, and to spread
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wing and fly in the outer air were most impossible
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failure if I strove to fail so. But I look
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on thee, on thee, beholding besides love the end of love,
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hearing oblivion beyond memory, as one who sits and gazes
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from above over the rivers to the bitter sea. And yet,
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because thou overcometh so, Because thou art more noble and
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like a king, thou canst prevail against my fears and
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fling thy purple round me, till my heart shall grow
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too close against thine heart henceforth to know how it
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shook when alone. Why, conquering may prove as lordly and
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complete a thing, in lifting upward as in crushing low.
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And as a vanquished soldier yields his sword to one
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who lifts him from the bloody earth, Even so, beloved,
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I at last record, here ends my strife. If thou
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invite me forth, I rise above abasement at the word.
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Make thy love larger to enlarge my worth. My poet,
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thou canst touch on all the notes God set between
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his after and before, and strike up and strike off
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the general roar of the rushing world's a melody that
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floats in a serene air purely. Antidotes of medicated music,
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answering for mankind's forlornest uses, thou canst pour from thence
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into their ears. God's will devotes thine to such ends,
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and mine to wait on thine. How dearest wilt thou
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have me for most use? A hope to sing by gladly,
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or a fine sad memory with thy songs to interfuse?
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a shade in which to sing, of palm or pine,
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a grave on which to rest from singing, choose. I
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never gave a lock of hair away, to a man dearest,
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except this to thee, which now upon my fingers thoughtfully
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I wring out to the full brown length and say,
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take it. My day of youth went yesterday, my hair
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no longer bounds to my foot's glee, nor plant I
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it from rose or myrtle tree, as girls do any more,
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it only may, now shade on two pale cheeks the
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mark of tears, taut drooping from the head that hangs
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aside through sorrow's trick. I thought the funeral shears would
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take this first, but love is justified. Take it thou,
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finding pure from all those years, the kiss my mother
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left here when she died. The soul's rialto hath its merchandise.
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I barter curl for curl upon that mart, and from
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my poet's forehead to my heart receive this lock which
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outweighs Argosy's. As purply black as erst to Pindar's eyes,
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the dim purpurial tresses gloom to thwart the nine white
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muse brows. For this counterpart, the bay crown's shade, beloved,
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I surmise, still lingers on thy curl, it is so black. Thus,
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with a fillet of smooth kissing breath, I tie the
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shadows safe from gliding back, and lay the gift where
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nothing hindereth, here on my heart as on thy brow,
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to lack no natural heat till mine grows cold in death. Beloved,
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my beloved, when I think that thou wast in the
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world a year ago, what time I sat alone here
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in the snow, and saw no footprint, heard the silence sink,
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no moment at thy voice, but link by link, when
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counting all my chains as if that so, they never
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could fall off at any blow, struck by thy possible hand,
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why thus I drink, of life's great cup of wonder. Wonderful,
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never to feel thee thrill the day or night, with
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personal act or speech, nor ever cull, some presence of
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thee with the blossoms white thou sawest growing. Atheists are
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as dull, who cannot guess God's presence out of sight.
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Say over again, and yet once over again, that thou
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dost love me. Though the word repeated should seem a
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cuckoo song as thou dost treat it, remember, never to
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the hill or plain, valley and wood without her cuckoo strain,
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comes the fresh spring in all her green completed. Beloved,
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I amid the darkness greeted, by a doubtful spirit voice,
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in that doubt's pain, cry, speak once more, thou lovest,
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who can fear, too many stars, though each in heaven
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shall roll, too many flowers, though each shall crown the year,
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say thou dost love me, love me, love me, toll
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the silver iterance, only minding dear, to love me also
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in silence with thy soul. When our two souls stand
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up erect and strong, face to face, silent, drawing nigh
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and nigher, until the lengthening wings break into fire, at
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either curvied point, what bitter wrong can the earth do
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to us, that we should not long be here contented? Think,
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in mounting higher, the angels would press on us and aspire.
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to drop some golden orb of perfect song into our deep,
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dear silence. Let us stay, rather on earth, beloved, where
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the unfit, contrarious moods of men recoil away and isolate
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pure spirits and permit a place to stand and love
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in for a day with darkness and the death hour
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rounding it. Is it indeed so? If I lay here dead,
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Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine? And would
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the sun for thee more coldly shine because of grave
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damps falling round my head? I marveled, my Belaved, when
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I read thy thought so in the letter. I am thine,
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but so much to thee. Can I pour thy wine
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while my hands tremble? Then my soul, instead of dreams
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of death, resumes life's lower range. Then love me, Love,
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look on me. As brighter ladies do not count it strange,
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for love to give up acres and degree, I yield
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the grave for thy sake and exchange my near sweet
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view of heaven for earth with thee. Let the world's
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sharpness like a clasping knife shut in upon itself and
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do no harm in this close hand of love now
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soft and warm. and let us hear no sound of
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human strife, after the click of the shutting. Life to life,
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I lean upon thee, dear, without alarm, and feel as
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safe as guarded by a charm against the stab of worldlings, who,
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if rife, are weak to injure. Very whitely still, the
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lilies of our lives may reassure their blossoms from their roots.
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accessible alone to heavenly dues that drop not fewer, growing straight,
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out of man's reach, on the hill. God only, who
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made us rich, can make us poor. A heavy heart, beloved,
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have I borne, from year to year until I saw
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thy face, and sorrow after sorrow took the place, of
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all those natural joys as lightly worn, as the stringed
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pearls each lifted in its turn by a beating heart
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at dance-time. Hopes apace were changed to long despairs, till
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God's own grace could scarcely lift above the world forlorn
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my heavy heart. Then thou didst bid me bring, and
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let it drop adown thy calmly great deep being. Fast
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it sinketh as a thing which its own nature does precipitate,
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while thine doth close above it, mediating betwixt the stars
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and the unaccomplished fate. I lived with visions for my company,
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instead of men and women years ago, and found them
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gentle mates, nor thought to know a sweeter music than
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they played to me. But soon their trailing purple was
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not free, of this world's dust, their lutes did silent grow,
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and I myself grew faint and blind below their vanishing eyes.
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Sure own Then thou didst come to be, beloved, what
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they seemed. Their shining fronts, their songs, their splendors, better
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yet the same, as river water hallowed into fonts, met
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in thee, and from out thee overcame, my soul with
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satisfaction of all wonders. because God's gifts put man's best
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dreams to shame. My own beloved, who hast lifted me,
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from this drear flat of earth where I was thrown,
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and in betwixt the languid ringlets blown a life-breath, till
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the forehead hopefully shines out again, as all the angels see,
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before thy saving kiss, my own, my own, who camest
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to me when the world was gone, and I who
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looked for only God found thee, I find thee, I
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am safe and strong and glad. As one who stands
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in doeless Asphodel looks backward on the tedious time he
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had in the upper life, so I with bosom swell
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make witness, here between the good and bad, that love,
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as strong as death, retrieves as well. My letters, all
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dead paper, mute and white, and yet they seem alive
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and quivering against my tremulous hands which loose the string
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and let them drop down on my knee tonight. This said,
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he wished to have me in his sight once as
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a friend, this fixed a day in spring, to come
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and touch my hand, a simple thing, yet I wept
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for it. This, the paper's light, said, Dear, I love thee,
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and I sank and quailed, as if God's future thundered
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on my past. This said, I am thine, and so
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its ink has paled, with lying at my heart that
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beat too fast, and this, O love, thy words have
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ill availed, if what this said I dared repeat at last.
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I think of thee. My thoughts do twine and bud.
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About thee, as wild vines about a tree, put out
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broad leaves and soon there's naught to see except the
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straggling green which hides the wood. Yet, O my palm tree,
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be it understood I will not have my thoughts instead
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of thee, who are dearer, better. Rather, instantly, renew thy presence,
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as a strong tree should, rustle thy boughs and set
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thy trunk all bare, and let these bands of greenery
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which ensphere thee drop heavily down, burst, shattered everywhere. Because
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in this deep joy to see and hear thee, and
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breathe within thy shadow a new air, I do not
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think of thee, I am too near thee. I see
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thine image through my tears tonight, and yet today I
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saw thee smiling. How refer the cause, beloved? Is it
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thou or I who makes me sad? The acolyte amid
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the chanted joy and thankful right may so fall flat
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with pale insensate brow on the altar stair. I hear
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thy voice and vow, perplexed, uncertain, since thou art out
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of sight. as he, in his swooning ears, the choir's amen. Beloved,
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dost thou love? Or did I see all the glory
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as I dreamed, and fainted when too vehement light dilated
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my ideal, for my soul's eyes? Will that light come again,
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as now these tears come falling hot and real? Thou comest,
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all is said without a word. I sit beneath thy looks,
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as children do, in the noon sun with souls that
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tremble through, their happy eyelids from an unaverred yet prodigal
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inward joy. Behold, I erred in that last doubt. And
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yet I cannot rue, the sin most but the occasion,
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that we two should for a moment stand unministered by
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a mutual presence. Ah, Keep near and close, thou dove-like help.
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And when my fears would rise with thy broad heart
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serenely interpose, brood down with thy divine sufficiencies, these thoughts
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which tremble when bereft of those, like callow birds left
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desert to the skies. The first time that the sun
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rose on thine oath, to love me, I looked forward
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to the moon. to slacken all those bonds which seemed
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too soon, and quickly tied to make a lasting troth.
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Quick loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe, and looking
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on myself, I seemed not one for such man's love.
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More like an out-of-tune worn vial, a good singer would
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be wroth, to spoil his song with, and which, snatched
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in haste, is laid down at the first ill-sounding note.
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I did not wrong myself so, but I placed a
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wrong on thee. For perfect strains may float nith master
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hands from instruments defaced, and great souls, at one stroke,
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may do and dote. Yes, call me by my pet name.
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Let me hear the name I used to run at,
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when a child, from innocent play, and leave the cowslips plied,
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to glance up in some face that proved me dear
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with the look of its eyes. I miss the clear,
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fond voices which, being drawn and reconciled into the music
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of heavens undefiled, call me no longer. Silence on the bier,
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while I call God, call God, so let thy mouth
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be air to those who are now exanimate. Gather the
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north flowers to complete the south. and catch the early
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love up in the late. Yes, call me by that name,
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and I, in truth, with the same heart, will answer
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and not wait. With the same heart, I said, I'll
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answer thee. As those when thou shalt call me by
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my name, lo, the vain promise is the same, the same,
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perplexed and ruffled by life's strategy. WHEN CALLED BEFORE I
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TOLD HOW HASTILY I DROPPED MY FLOWERS OR BREAK OFF
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FROM A GAME, TO RUN AND ANSWER WITH THE SMILE
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THAT CAME AT PLAY LAST MOMENT AND WENT ON WITH
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ME THROUGH MY OBEDIENCE. WHEN I ANSWER NOW I DROP
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A GRAVE THOUGHT, BREAK FROM SOLITUDE, YET STILL MY HEART
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GOES TO THEE, PONDER HOW, NOT AS TO A SINGLE
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GOOD BUT ALL MY GOOD. Lay thy hand on it,
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best one, and allow that no child's foot could run
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fast as this blood. If I leave all for thee,
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wilt thou exchange and be all to me? Shall I
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never miss home-talk and blessing, and the common kiss that
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comes to each in turn, nor count it strange, when
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I look up to drop on a new range of
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walls and floors, another home than this. Nay, wilt thou
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fill that place by me which is filled by dead
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eyes too tender to know change, that's hardest. If to
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conquer love has tried, to conquer grief tries more, as
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all things prove, for grief indeed is love and grief beside. Alas,
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I have grieved, so I am hard to love. Yet
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love me, wilt thou, open thy heart wide, and fold
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within the wet wings of thy dove. When we met first,
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and loved, I did not build upon the event with marble.
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Could it mean to last, a love set pendulous between
377
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sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled, distrusting every light
378
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that seemed to gild the onward path, and feared to
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overlean a finger even. And though I have grown serene
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and strong since then, I think that God has willed
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a still renewable fear, O love, O troth. Lest these
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enclasped hands should never hold, This mutual kiss drop down
383
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between us both, As an unowned thing, once the lips
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being cold, And love be false. If he to keep
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one oath, Must lose one joy by his life's star foretold. Pardon,
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O pardon, that my soul should make Of all that
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strong divineness which I know, For thine and thee an
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image only so formed of the sand, And fit to
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shift and break. It is that distant years which did
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00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:23.670
not take thy sovereignty, Recoiling with a blow, have forced
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my swimming brain to undergo their doubt and dread, and
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blindly to forsake thy purity of likeness, and distort thy
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worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit. As if a shipwrecked pagan,
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safe in port, his guardian said, to commemorate, should set
395
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a sculptured porpoise, gills a snort, and vibrant tail within
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the temple gate. First time he kissed me, he but
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only kissed the fingers of this hand wherewith I write,
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and ever since it grew more clean and white. Slow
399
00:30:01.430 --> 00:30:05.410
to world greetings, quick with its O-list, when the angels speak.
400
00:30:06.430 --> 00:30:09.549
A ring of amethyst I could not wear here, plainer
401
00:30:09.589 --> 00:30:13.849
to my sight than that first kiss. The second passed
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00:30:13.910 --> 00:30:18.410
in height, the first, and sought the forehead, and half missed,
403
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half falling on the hair. O beyond mead! That was
404
00:30:24.920 --> 00:30:29.650
the chrism of love, which love's own crowned. with sanctifying
405
00:30:29.730 --> 00:30:34.279
sweetness did proceed, the third upon my lips was folded down,
406
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in perfect, purple state, since when, indeed, I have been
407
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proud and said, My love, my own. Because thou hast
408
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the power and own'st the grace to look through and
409
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behind this mask of me, against which years have beat
410
00:30:54.819 --> 00:30:59.049
thus blanchingly with their reigns, and behold my soul's true face,
411
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the dim and weary witness of life's race, because thou
412
00:31:03.289 --> 00:31:06.150
hast the faith and love to see, through that same
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00:31:06.259 --> 00:31:10.400
soul's distracting lethargy, the patient angel waiting for a place
414
00:31:10.839 --> 00:31:14.539
in the new heavens, because nor sin, nor woe, nor
415
00:31:14.579 --> 00:31:21.660
God's infliction, nor death's neighborhood, nor all which others' viewing
416
00:31:21.799 --> 00:31:26.109
turned to go, nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,
417
00:31:26.650 --> 00:31:33.549
nothing repels thee, surusud. Dearest, teach me so, to pour
418
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out gratitude as thou dost good. Oh yes, they love
419
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through all this world of ours. I will not gainsay love,
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called love for sooth. I have heard love talked in
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my early youth, and since not so long back, but
422
00:31:49.869 --> 00:31:56.720
that the flowers then gathered, smell still. Musulmans and Jeors
423
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throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth for
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any weeping. Polypheme's white tooth slips on the nut if,
425
00:32:05.269 --> 00:32:10.009
after frequent showers, the shell is over-smooth, and not so
426
00:32:10.079 --> 00:32:13.500
much will turn the thing called love aside to hate
427
00:32:14.319 --> 00:32:18.339
or else to oblivion. But thou art not such a lover,
428
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my beloved. Thou canst wait through sorrow and sickness to
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bring souls to touch. and think it soon when others cry,
430
00:32:28.130 --> 00:32:32.950
too late. I thank all who have loved me in
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00:32:32.990 --> 00:32:38.160
their hearts, with thanks and love from mine. Deep thanks
432
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to all who paused a little near the prison wall,
433
00:32:41.640 --> 00:32:44.119
to hear my music in its louder parts ere they
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went onward, each one to the mart's or temple's occupation,
435
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beyond call. But thou, who in my voices sink and fall,
436
00:32:53.789 --> 00:32:57.339
when the sob took it, thy divinest art's own instrument
437
00:32:57.380 --> 00:33:00.440
didst drop down at thy foot, to hearken what I
438
00:33:00.519 --> 00:33:07.069
said between my tears. Instruct me how to thank thee, oh,
439
00:33:07.869 --> 00:33:11.430
to shoot my soul's full meaning into future years, that
440
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they should lend it utterance and salute love that endures
441
00:33:15.329 --> 00:33:21.630
from life that disappears. My future will not copy fair
442
00:33:21.670 --> 00:33:25.630
my past, I wrote that once. and thinking at my side,
443
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my ministering life-angel justified the word by his appealing look
444
00:33:29.839 --> 00:33:32.960
upcast to the white throne of God, I turned at last,
445
00:33:33.480 --> 00:33:37.240
and there instead saw thee, not unallied to angels in
446
00:33:37.279 --> 00:33:42.059
thy soul. Then I long tried by natural ills received
447
00:33:42.099 --> 00:33:45.720
the comfort fast, while budding at thy sight my pilgrim
448
00:33:45.769 --> 00:33:51.930
staff gave out green leaves with morning dews imperiled. I
449
00:33:51.990 --> 00:33:55.450
seek no copy now of life's first half. Leave here
450
00:33:55.490 --> 00:33:58.890
the pages with long musing curled, and write me new
451
00:33:58.950 --> 00:34:03.549
my future's epigraph, new angel mine, unhoped for in the world.
452
00:34:06.279 --> 00:34:08.949
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
453
00:34:10.059 --> 00:34:12.460
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height,
454
00:34:13.300 --> 00:34:16.719
my soul can reach when feeling out of sight, for
455
00:34:16.760 --> 00:34:20.780
the ends of being and ideal grace. I love thee
456
00:34:20.820 --> 00:34:23.500
to the level of every day's most quiet need by
457
00:34:23.579 --> 00:34:27.400
sun and candlelight. I love thee freely as men strive
458
00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:31.019
for right. I love thee purely as they turn from praise.
459
00:34:32.239 --> 00:34:35.239
I love thee with the passion put to use, in
460
00:34:35.300 --> 00:34:41.590
my old griefs and with my childhood's faith. I love
461
00:34:41.630 --> 00:34:44.769
thee with a love I seem to lose. With my
462
00:34:44.829 --> 00:34:48.010
lost saints, I love thee with the breath, smiles, tears
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00:34:48.090 --> 00:34:51.280
of all my life. And if God choose, I shall
464
00:34:51.320 --> 00:34:57.550
but love thee better after death. Beloved, thou hast brought
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00:34:57.590 --> 00:35:01.889
me many flowers, plucked in the garden, all the summer through,
466
00:35:02.840 --> 00:35:06.079
and winter, and it seemed as if they grew, in
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00:35:06.119 --> 00:35:10.980
this close room, nor missed the sun and showers. So,
468
00:35:11.199 --> 00:35:13.739
in the like name of that love of ours, take
469
00:35:13.800 --> 00:35:17.260
back these thoughts which here unfolded too, and which on
470
00:35:17.320 --> 00:35:23.510
warm and cold days I withdrew from my heart's ground. Indeed,
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00:35:24.070 --> 00:35:28.360
those beds and bowers, be overgrown with bitter weeds and rue,
472
00:35:28.980 --> 00:35:34.389
and wait thy weeding, yet here's eglantine, here's ivy, take them,
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00:35:34.809 --> 00:35:37.489
as I used to do thy flowers, and keep them
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00:35:37.530 --> 00:35:41.530
where they shall not pine. Instruct thine eyes to keep
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00:35:41.570 --> 00:35:44.940
their colors true, and tell thy soul their roots are
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00:35:44.960 --> 00:35:45.679
left in mine.
