218
A MAN'S WOOING.
"Not one true man": I hear it still,
Your voice's clear cold sound,
Upholding all your constant swains
And good knights underground.
Your voice's clear cold sound,
Upholding all your constant swains
And good knights underground.
"Not one true lover":—Woman,turn;
I love you. Words are small;
'T is life speaks plain: In twenty years
Perhaps you may know all.
I love you. Words are small;
'T is life speaks plain: In twenty years
Perhaps you may know all.
I seek you. You alone I seek:
All other women, fair,
Or wise, or good, may go their way,
Without my thought or care.
All other women, fair,
Or wise, or good, may go their way,
Without my thought or care.
But you I follow day by day,
And night by night I keep
My heart's chaste mansion lighted, where
Your image lies asleep.
And night by night I keep
My heart's chaste mansion lighted, where
Your image lies asleep.
Asleep! If e'er to wake, He knows
Who Eve to Adam brought,
As you to me: the embodiment
Of boyhood's dear sweet thought,
Who Eve to Adam brought,
As you to me: the embodiment
Of boyhood's dear sweet thought,
And youth's fond dream, and manhood's hope,
That still half hopeless shone;
Till every rootless vain ideal
Commingled into one,—
That still half hopeless shone;
Till every rootless vain ideal
Commingled into one,—
