Any Wife To Any Husband

I     My love, this is the bitterest, that thou     Who art all truth and who dost love me now     As thine eyes say, as thy voice breaks to say     Shouldst love so truly and couldst love me still     A whole long life through, had but love its will,     Would death that leads me from thee brook delay! II     I have but to be by thee, and thy hand     Would never let mine go, thy heart withstand     The beating of my heart to reach its place.     When should I look for thee and feel thee gone?     When cry for the old comfort and find none?     Never, I know! Thy soul is in thy face. III     Oh, I should fade, tis willed so! might I save,     Galdly I would, whatever beauty gave     Joy to thy sense, for that was precious too.     It is not to be granted. But the soul     Whence the love comes, all ravage leaves that whole;     Vainly the flesh fades, soul makes all things new. IV     And twould not be because my eye grew dim     Thou couldst not find the love there, thanks to Him     Who never is dishonoured in the spark     He gave us from his fire of fires, and bade     Remember whence it sprang nor be afraid     While that burns on, though all the rest grow dark. V     So, how thou wouldst be perfect, white and clean     Outside as inside, soul and souls demesne     Alike, this body given to show it by!     Oh, three-parts through the worst of lifes abyss,     What plaudits from the next world after this,     Couldst thou repeat a stroke and gain the sky! VI     And is it not the bitterer to think     That, disengage our hands and thou wilt sink     Although thy love was love in very deed?     I know that nature! Pass a festive day     Thou dost not throw its relic-flower away     Nor bid its musics loitering echo speed. VII     Thou letst the strangers glove lie where it fell;     If old things remain old things all is well,     For thou art grateful as becomes man best:     And hadst thou only heard me play one tune,     Or viewed me from a window, not so soon     With thee would such things fade as with the rest. VIII     I seem to see! we meet and part: tis brief:     The book I opened keeps a folded leaf,     The very chair I sat on, breaks the rank;     That is a portrait of me on the wall     Three lines, my face comes at so slight a call;     And for all this, one little hours to thank. IX     But now, because the hour through years was fixed,     Because our inmost beings met amd mixed,     Because thou once hast loved me, wilt thou dare     Say to thy soul and Who may list beside,     Therefore she is immortally my bride,     Chance cannot change that love, nor time impair. X     So, what if in the dusk of life thats left,     I, a tired traveller, of my sun bereft,     Look from my path when, mimicking the same,     The fire-fly glimpses past me, come and gone?     Where was it till the sunset? where anon     It will be at the sunrise! whats to blame? XI     Is it so helpful to thee? canst thou take     The mimic up, nor, for the true things sake,     Put gently by such efforts at at beam?     Is the remainder of the way so long     Thou needst the little solace, thou the strong?     Watch out thy watch, let weak ones doze and dream! XII     Ah, but the fresher faces! Is it true,     Thoult ask, some eyes are beautiful and new?     Some hair, how can one choose but grasp such wealth?     And if a man would press his lips to lips     Fresh as the wilding hedge-rose-cup there slips     The dew-drop out of, must it be by stealth? XIII     It cannot change the love kept still for Her,     Much more than, such a picture to prefer     Passing a day with, to a rooms bare side.     The painted form takes nothing she possessed,     Yet while the Titians Venus lies at rest     A man looks. Once more, what is there to chide? XIV     So must I see, from where I sit and watch,     My own self sell myself, my hand attach     Its warrant to the very thefts from me     Thy singleness of soul that made me proud,     Thy purity of heart I loved aloud,     Thy mans truth I was bold to bid God see! XV     Love so, then, if thou wilt! Give all thou canst     Away to the new faces, disentranced     (Say it and think it) obdurate no more,     Re-issue looks and words from the old mint     Pass them afresh, no matter whose the print     Image and superscription once they bore! XVI     Re-coin thyself and give it them to spend,     It all comes to the same thing at the end,     Since mine thou wast, mine art, and mine shalt be,     Faithful or faithless, sealing up the sum     Or lavish of my treasure, thou must come     Back to the hearts place here I keep for thee! XVII     Only, why should it be with stain at all?     Why must I, twixt the leaves of coronal,     Put any kiss of pardon on thy brow?     Why need the other women know so much     And talk together, Such the look and such     The smile he used to love with, then as now! XVIII     Might I die last and shew thee! Should I find     Such hardship in the few years left behind,     If free to take and light my lamp, and go     Into thy tomb, and shut the door and sit     Seeing thy face on those four sides of it     The better that they are so blank, I know! XIX     Why, time was what I wanted, to turn oer     Within my mind each look, get more and more     By heart each word, too much to learn at first,     And join thee all the fitter for the pause     Neath the low door-ways lintel. That were cause     For lingering, though thou calledst, If I durst! XX     And yet thou art the nobler of us two.     What dare I dream of, that thou canst not do,     Outstripping my ten small steps with one stride?     Ill say then, heres a trial and a task     Is it to bear? if easy, Ill not ask     Though love fail, I can trust on in thy pride. XXI     Pride? when those eyes forestall the life behind     The death I have to go through! when I find,     Now that I want thy help most, all of thee!     What did I fear? Thy love shall hold me fast     Until the little minutes sleep is past     And I wake saved. And yet, it will not be!