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I do not ask to offer thee A timid love like mine; I lay it, as the rose is laid, On some immortal shrine.

I have no hope in loving thee, I only ask to love; I brood upon my silent heart, As on its nest the dove.

But little have I been beloved, Sad, silent, and alone; And yet I feel, in loving thee, The wide world is mine own.

Thine is the name I breathe to Heaven. Thy face is on my sleep; I only ask that love like this May pray for thee and weep.

G. Romani, 1845 in Graham’s Illustrated Magazine George Linley (1798-1865) as ‘Constance’, 1847 James E. Macgruder, 1855, Baltimore