Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/165

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the same heart,. I said, I'll answer thee

As those, when thou shalt call me by my name—

Lo, the vain promise! Is the same, the same,

Perplexed and ruffled by life's strategy?

When called before, I told how hastily

I dropped my flowers, or brake off from a game,

To run and answer with the smile that came

At play last moment, and went on with me

Through my obedience. When I answer now,

I drop a grave thought;—break from solitude:—

Yet still my heart goes to thee. . . ponder how. .

Not as to a single good but all my good!

Lay thy hand on it, best one, and allow

That no child's foot could run fast as this blood.

I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange

And be all to me? Shall I never miss

Home-talk and blessing, and the common kiss

That comes to each in turn, nor count it strange,

When I look up, to drop on a new range

Of walls and floors. . another home than this?

Nay, wilt thou fill that place by me which is

Filled by dead eyes, too tender to know change?

That's hardest! If to conquer love, has tried,

To conquer grief tries more. . . as all things prove:

For grief indeed is love, and grief beside,

Alas, I have grieved so I am hard to love—

Yet love me—wilt thou? Open thine heart wide,

And fold within, the wet wings of thy dove.