Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems By the Lady E. Stuart Wortley. In Three Vols |
 | I, II, III. |
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AND THOU CANST FAITHLESS. |
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 | Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems |  |
AND THOU CANST FAITHLESS.
And thou canst faithless, heartless, loveless prove,
Who taught this heart—and learned in teaching—Love!
Then let me hide and veil my blushing brow—
I am ashamed of Love and loving now.
Who taught this heart—and learned in teaching—Love!
Then let me hide and veil my blushing brow—
I am ashamed of Love and loving now.
222
I am ashamed of Love that can become,
Beneath these petty changes of our doom,
A thing so weak, so worthless, and so vain—
I loathe his empire, and I scorn his chain!
Beneath these petty changes of our doom,
A thing so weak, so worthless, and so vain—
I loathe his empire, and I scorn his chain!
Oh! yet bethink thee of the dear days past—
Condemn me not to Sorrow's pangs at last—
We trod a path too beautiful, too bright,
To lead to shades of stern and starless night!
Condemn me not to Sorrow's pangs at last—
We trod a path too beautiful, too bright,
To lead to shades of stern and starless night!
I am ashamed of Love that thus can lose
The glorious light of Constancy's fair hues,
Whose soul of truth—whose crown of faith is gone—
I am ashamed of Love!—and yet love on!
The glorious light of Constancy's fair hues,
Whose soul of truth—whose crown of faith is gone—
I am ashamed of Love!—and yet love on!
But my Love is as different still from thine
As earth's dim lamps from stars that deathless shine;
It needeth not to be still watched and fed—
A feeble light and faintly-flickering shed.
As earth's dim lamps from stars that deathless shine;
It needeth not to be still watched and fed—
A feeble light and faintly-flickering shed.
223
It is a world apart of living light—
It feels no failure—and it fears no blight;
It feeds upon itself for evermore,
And still with light and flame streams running oer.
It feels no failure—and it fears no blight;
It feeds upon itself for evermore,
And still with light and flame streams running oer.
| Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | |