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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 no delay.
II
I have but to be by thee, and thy hand
Will never let mine go, nor heart withstand
The beating of my heart to reach its place.
When shall 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.
VII
Thou let'st the stranger's 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.
IX
But now, because the hour through years was fixed,
Because our inmost beings met and mixed,
Because thou once had loved me - wilt thou dare
Say to thy soul and Who may list beside,
'Therefore she is immortally my bride,
Chance cannot change my love, nor time impair'.
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