Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/847

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

690 (Hi)

GO from me. Yet I feel that I shall stand Henceforward in thy shadow. Nevermore

Alone upon the threshold of my door Of individual life I shall command The uses of my soul, nor lift my hand

Serenely in the sunshine as before,

Without the sense of that which I forbore Thy touch upon the palm. The widest land Doom takes to part us, leaves thy heart in mine

With pulses that beat double. What I do And what I dream include thce, as the wine

Must taste of its own grapes. And when I sue God for myself, He hears that name of thine,

And sees within my eyes the tears of two.

��r

��691 (iv)

r F thou must love me, let it be for naught Except for love's sake only. Do not say,

  • I love her for her smile her look her way

Of speaking gently, for a trick of thought That falls in well with mine, and certes brought

A sense of pleasant case on such a day'

For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for

Thine own dear pity's wiping my cheeks dry. A creature might forget to weep, who bore

Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby ' But love me for love's sake, that evermore

Thou mayst love on, through love's eternity.

�� �