VIII. I seem to see! We meet and part; 't is brief; The very chair I sat on, breaks the rank; Three lines, my face comes at so slight a call : IX. But now, because the hour through years was fixed, Because thou once hast loved me-wilt thou dare "Chance cannot change my love, nor time impair. 66 X. So, what if in the dusk of life that 's left, I, a tired traveller of my sun bereft, "Look from my path when, mimicking the same, "The fire-fly glimpses past me, come and gone? -Where was it till the sunset? where anon 66 "It will be at the sunrise! What 's to blame?" XI. Is it so helpful to thee? Canst thou take Is the remainder of the way so long, Thou need'st the little solace, thou the strong? Watch out thy watch, let weak ones doze and dream! XII. -Ah, but the fresher faces! Thou 'lt ask, 66 some eyes are beautiful and new? "Some hair,-how can one choose but grasp such wealth? "And if a man would press his lips to lips "Fresh as the wilding hedge-rose-cup there slips "The dew-drop out of, must it be by stealth? XIII. "It cannot change the love still kept for Her, "More than if such a picture I prefer 66 Passing a day with, to a room's bare side: "The painted form takes nothing she possessed, "Yet, while the Titian's Venus lies at rest, "A man looks. Once more, what is there to chide?" XIV. So must I see, from where I sit and watch, Its warrant to the very thefts from me- Thy man's-truth I was bold to bid God see! XV. Love so, then, if thou wilt! Give all thou canst (Say it and think it) obdurate no more, XVI, Re-coin thyself and give it them to spend, It all comes to the same thing at the end, Since mine thou wast, mine art, and mine shalt be, Faithful or faithless: sealing up the sum Or lavish of my treasure, thou must come Back to the heart's place here I keep for thee! XVII. Only, why should it be with stain at all? XVIII. Might I die last and show thee! Should I find If free to take and light my lamp, and go The better that they are so blank, I know! XIX. Why, time was what I wanted, to turn o'er By heart each word, too much to learn at first; And join thee all the fitter for the pause 'Neath the low door-way's lintel. That were cause For lingering, though thou calledst, if I durst! XX. And yet thou art the nobler of us two: What dare I dream of, that thou canst not do, Outstripping my ten small steps with one stride? I'll say then, here's a trial and a task; Is it to bear ?—if easy, I 'll not ask : Though love fail, I can trust on in thy pride. XXI. Pride?—when those eyes forestall the life behind The death I have to go through !—when I find, Now that I want thy help most, all of thee! What did I fear? Thy love shali hold me fast Until the little minute's sleep is past And I wake saved.—And yet it will not be ! |