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Bertha, sweet Bertha! would to heav'n it had! What would'st thou with a past that knew thee not?

To make that past my own by confidence, By mingled recollections, I would fain Our childish sorrows had been wept together; Our childish joys had been indulged together; Our childish hopes had been believed together: But as this cannot be, I speak of them— The very speaking does associate us— I speak of them, that, in those coming years, When youthful hours rise up within the mind, Like lovely dreams some sudden chance has brought, To fill the eyes with long-forgotten tears,