By a most dauntless, voiceless fortitude,

XIII

With the same sunlight on our brow and hair.

May be unwrought so. Neither love me for

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

Hearing oblivion beyond memory;

Is by thee only, whom I love alone.

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

To draw mens eyes and prove the inner cost,—

And rend the garment of my life, in brief,

Beholding, besides love, the end of love,

To pipe now gainst the valley nightingale

Xｈｔｔpｓ://ｒｅａd•99csw•ｃomI

On me thou lookest with no doubting care,

As one who sits and gazes from above,

To these things? O Beloved, it is plain

Except for loves sake only. Do not say

And wilt thou have me fashion into speech

Doth crown me with a ruby large enow

My hand to hold my spirit so far off

To bear the burden of a heavy heart,—

From that same love this vindicating grace,

A sense of pleasant ease on such a day&am九九藏書p;mdash;

I drop it at thy feet. I cannot teach

Since sorrow hath shut me safe in loves divine,

And which, when rising up from breast to brow,

For these things in themselves, Beloved, may

To climb Aornus, and can scarce avail

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

To bless thee, yet renounce thee to thy face.

Nay, let the silence of my womanhood

And placed it by thee on a golden throne,—

Over the rivers to the bitter sea.

XII

A creature might forget to weep, who bore

From myself—m九九藏書e—that I should bring thee proof

I am not of thy worth nor for thy place!

And love called love. And thus, I cannot speak

But love me for loves sake, that evermore

Too calm and sad a face in front of thine;

And yet, because I love thee, I obtain

Of speaking gently,—for a trick of thought

When first thine earnest eyes with mine were crossed,

And therefore if to love can be desert,

Thy soul hath snatched up mine all faint and weak,

Between our faces, to cast light on each?—

A melancholy music,—why advert

If thou must love me, let it be for nought

Commend my woman-love to thy b九_九_藏_書elief,—

Thou mayst love on, through loves eternity.

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

As these you see, and trembling knees that fail

Seeing that I stand unwon, however wooed,

Thine own dear pitys wiping my cheeks dry,—

XV

Were most impossible failure, if I strove

XIV

I should not love withal, unless that thou

This weary minstrel-life that once was girt

I am not all unworthy. Cheeks as pale

Indeed this very love which is my boast,

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

As on a bee shut in a crystalline;

To live on still in love, and yet in vain,&read.99csw.com;mdash;

That falls in well with mine, and certes brought

Accuse me not, beseech thee, that I wear

Hadst set me an example, shown me how,

The love I bear thee, finding words enough,

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

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

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby!

For we two look two ways, and cannot shine

Lest one touch of this heart convey its grief

And to spread wing and fly in the outer air

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