 | Carmina crucis |  |
91
L'ENVOI.
To me how many tasks
Love gave in youth, and I was well content;
Only to stand and wait a lover asks;
And yet my spirit, bent
By pain and strife, forewent
Its steadfast service long
Ere the sweet evensong.
Love gave in youth, and I was well content;
Only to stand and wait a lover asks;
And yet my spirit, bent
By pain and strife, forewent
Its steadfast service long
Ere the sweet evensong.
Yet oft will Love return
And sweetly talk with me, most like a friend
Austere and proved, whose words, perchance, are stern,
Yet in whose eyes (that while he speaketh bend
To meet my own) such gentleness I find,
That all his speech seems pitiful and kind.
And sweetly talk with me, most like a friend
Austere and proved, whose words, perchance, are stern,
Yet in whose eyes (that while he speaketh bend
To meet my own) such gentleness I find,
That all his speech seems pitiful and kind.
Love saith to me, “Repent;”
Love saith to me, “Believe;”
Love sayeth oft-times, “Grieve
That thou hast little lent,
That thou hast little given,
To Him, thy Lord in Heaven,
And when He cometh what wilt Thou receive?”
Love saith to me, “Believe;”
Love sayeth oft-times, “Grieve
That thou hast little lent,
That thou hast little given,
To Him, thy Lord in Heaven,
And when He cometh what wilt Thou receive?”
92
Love sayeth to me, “Pray
That thou mayst meet that day
Desired yet feared;” and oft-times Love again
Repeats these words, and oh! my spirit then,
What sayest thou? “I say
To all Love sayeth, Yea,
Yea evermore, and evermore Amen!”
That thou mayst meet that day
Desired yet feared;” and oft-times Love again
Repeats these words, and oh! my spirit then,
What sayest thou? “I say
To all Love sayeth, Yea,
Yea evermore, and evermore Amen!”
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