In Memoriam (Tennyson)/Canto 60
lx.
Tho' if an eye that's downward cast
Could make thee somewhat blench or fail,
So be my love an idle tale,
And fading legend of the past;
And thou, as one that once declined,
When he was little more than boy,
On some unworthy heart with joy,
But lives to wed an equal mind;
And breathes a novel world, the while
His other passion wholly dies,
Or in the light of deeper eyes
Is matter for a flying smile.