| "If Thou Must Love Me" If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love`s sake only. Do not say `I love her for her smile...her look...her way Of speaking...for a trick of thought That falls well within mine, and certes brought A sense of pleasant ease on such a day!`-- For these things in themselves, Beloved, may Be changed, or change for thee,--and love, so wrought, May be unwrought so. Neither love me for Thine own dear pity`s wiping my cheeks dry,-- A creature might forget to weep, who bore Thy comfort long, and lose thy love thereby! But love me for love`s sake, that evermore Thou may`st love on, throught love`s eternity. -Elizabeth Barrett Browning |
| "...The old order changeth, yeilding place to new And God fulfills Himself in many ways Lest one good custon should corrupt the world. Comfort thyslf: What comfort is in me? I have lived my life, and that which I have done May he within himself make pure! but thou if thou shouldst never see my face again, Pray for my soul. More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of. Wherefore let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day. For what are men better than sheep or goats That nourish a blind life within the brain, If, knowing God, they lift not hands of prayer Both for themselves and those who call them friend?" -Alfred Lord Tennyson, "The Passing of Arthur" |
| "Silver" Slowly, Silently now the moon Walks the night in her silver shoon; This way, that way, she peers and sees Silver fruit upon silver trees; One by one the casements catch Her beams beneath the silvery thatch; Couched in his kennel like a log, With paws of silver sleeps the dog; From their shadowy cote the white breasts peep Of doves in a silver-fathered sleep A harvest mouse goes scampering by, With silver claws and a silver eye; And moveless fish in the water gleam, By silver reeds in a silver stream. -Walter de la Mare |