Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/438

With that same love my heart is craving now.
Allow my plea! for if Thou disallow,
 No second fountain can I find but Thee;
 No second hope or help is left to me,
No second anything, but only Thou.
O Love accept, according my request;
 O Love exhaust, fulfilling my desire;
 Uphold me with the strength that cannot tire,
Nerve me to labour till Thou bid me rest,
 Kindle my fire from Thine unkindled fire,
And charm the willing heart from out my breast.

6.

We lack, yet cannot fix upon the lack:
 Not this, nor that; yet somewhat, certainly.
 We see the things we do not yearn to see
Around us: and what see we glancing back?
Lost hopes that leave our hearts upon the rack,
 Hopes that were never ours yet seemed to be,
 For which we steered on life's salt stormy sea
Braving the sunstroke and the frozen pack.
If thus to look behind is all in vain,
 And all in vain to look to left or right,
Why face we not our future once again,
Launching with hardier hearts across the main,
 Straining dim eyes to catch the invisible sight,
And strong to bear ourselves in patient pain?