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86

I. ETERNAL JUNES

Guard her for ever for my great love's sake,
Lord God.—Be as a light about her head:
Shield her through solemn hours of darkness dread,
And when the golden summer mornings break.
If one must suffer, let not her heart ache,
But pierce my own strong suffering heart instead!
If sacrificial blood-drops must be shed
Wilt thou not honour me, and my blood take?—
Thou couldst not give us that one sweet June-day!
Most hard it seems, and ever will seem hard.
But give to her eternal Junes, I pray,
Full of flower-happiness, divine, unmarred
E'en by one petal falling from one spray:
And let me share with thee the right to guard.
June 30, 1883.