Poetic studies by Elizabeth Stuart Phelps :: :: University of Virginia Library

Two things love can do,
Only two:
Can distrust, or can believe;
It can die, or it can live,
There is no syncope
Possible to love or me.
Go your ways!

Two things you can do,
Only two:
Be the thing you used to be,
Or be nothing more to me.

I can but joy or grieve,
Can no more than die or live.
Go your ways!

So far I wrote, my darling, drearily,
But now my sad pen falls down wearily
From out my trembling hand.

I did not, do not, cannot mean it, Dear!
Come life or death, joy, grief, or hope, or fear,
I bless you where I stand!

I bless you where I stand, excusing you,
No speech nor language for accusing you
My laggard lips can learn.

To you—be what you are, or can, to me,—
To you or blessedly or fatefully
My heart must turn!