Copper Sun (Cullen)/If Love be Staunch
If Love Be Staunch
If love be staunch, call mountains brittle;Love is a thing will liveSo long, my dear,—oh, just the littleWhile water stays in a sieve.
Yea, love is deathless as the dayWhose death the stars reveal;And love is loyal all the way,If treachery be leal.
Beyond the shadow of a doubt,No thing is sweet as love,But, oh, the bitterness spewed outOf the heart at the end thereof!
Beyond all cavil or complaint,Love’s ways are double-dyed;Beneath the surplice of a saintThe cloven hooves are spied.
Whom yesterday love rhymed his sunToday he names a star;When the course of another day is run,What will he say you are?