University of Virginia Library


117

XLV
THE EXCUSE

If there were anything that I could do,
Which done would make your comfort more complete,
Think not I should continue this low seat,
And drink your bountihead as hitherto;
Indeed I would most gladly toil for you:
And yet, believe me, it might happen, sweet,
That I should come in time to work my feat
For the feat's sake, forgetting whence it grew,
And so displacing love, should lose love so.
But since your life is full of things that bless,—
Dowered with such bounty that I may not guess
One smallest gift which man might still bestow,—
My Love hath leave to bloom in idleness,
And know herself with nothing else to know.