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Lyrics of the heart

With other poems. By Alaric A. Watts. With forty-one engravings on steel

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YOU ASK ME FOR A PLEDGE, LOVE.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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YOU ASK ME FOR A PLEDGE, LOVE.

You ask me for a pledge, love, but gaze upon my cheek,
And let its hue, when thou art near, my heart's devotion speak;
Look on my dim and tearful eye, my pale and rigid brow,
List to my deep, unbidden sigh,—what need of pledge or vow!
You ask me for a pledge, love, some token of my truth;
Take then this flower, an emblem meet of woman's blighted youth;
The perfume of its withered leaves, triumphant o'er decay,
May whisper of my changeless love when I have passed away!
What, yet another pledge, love; then mark me while I vow,
By all this heart hath borne for thee, by all it suffers now;
In grief or gladness, hope, despair, in bliss or misery,
I'll be, what I have ever been—to thee, to only thee!