Page:Wessex poems and other verses (IA wessexpoemsother00hard).pdf/38

 —For he was soon to die,—he softly said, "Tell me you love me!"—holding hard her hand.

She would have given a world to breathe "yes" truly, So much his life seemed hanging on her mind, And hence she lied, her heart persuaded throughly, 'Twas worth her soul to be a moment kind.

But the sad need thereof, his nearing death, So mocked humanity that she shamed to prize A world conditioned thus, or care for breath Where Nature such dilemmas could devise.

1866.