“This is what I vow;

He shall have my heart to keep,

Sweetly will we stir and sleep,

    All the years, as now.

Swift the measured sands may run;

Love like this is never done;

He and I are welded one:

    This is what I vow.

 

    This is what I pray:

Keep him by me tenderly;

Keep him sweet in pride of me,

    Ever and a day;

Keep me from the old distress;

Let me, for our happiness,

Be the one to love the less:

    This is what I pray.

 

    This is what I know:

Lovers' oaths are thin as rain;

Love's a harbinger of pain-

    Would it were not so!

Ever is my heart a-thirst,

Ever is my love accurst;

He is neither last nor first:

    This is what I know.”