I
ROSSETTI MANUSCRIPT
i
1I told my love, I told my love,
I told her all my heart ;
Trembling, cold, in ghastly fears,
Ah ! she doth depart.
5Soon as she was gone from me,
A traveller came by.
Silently, invisibly —
O! was no deny.
MS. Book, p. 115. Printed by DGR and later add. under the title 'Love's Secret.' Not in Swinb. All edd. print the first stanza deleted by Blake:—
'Never pain [seek del.] to tell thy love,
Love that never told can be;
For the gentle wind does move
Silently, invisibly.'
All edd. read seek for pain; WBY reads shall for can; all edd. except WBY read doth for does.
2, 3 heart . . . fears] All edd. punctuate by comma after heart and period after fears. 4 doth] did all edd. 5 Soon as] Soon after all edd. 8 O!... deny] He took her with a sigh MS. Book 1st rdg. del. and all edd.
ii
1I laid me down upon a bank,
Where love lay sleeping;
I heard among the rushes dank
Weeping, Weeping.
5Then I went to the heath & the wild.
To the thistles & thorns of the waste;
And they told me how they were beguil'd,
Driven out, & compel'd to be chaste.
MS. Book, p. 115. DGR, Swinb., WMR and EY print these as the first two stanzas of 'The Garden of Love,' ignoring the separation line drawn between the two poems. EY however note this, iii. p. 93. WBY prints separately with title 'The Thistles and Thorns.'
