Wilt thou love? Oh, listen all
I can tell thee of such thrall.
Though my heart be changed and chill,
Yet that heart remembers still,
All the sorrow that it proved,
All I suffered while I loved.
'Tis to waste the feverish day,
In impatient hopes away.
Watching with a weary eye
For a step that comes not nigh;
'Tis to pass the night in weeping,
Vigils the heart's penance keeping;
Shedding tears, that while they fall,
Are ashamed to weep at all.
There are darker hours in store,
Loving—yet beloved no more.
When the lover's heart is changed,
And the lover's eye has ranged.
Sit thou down as by a grave,
Weep o'er all thy young faith gave;
Weep and weep in vain, for never
Could endurance or endeavour,
Love in every action shown,
Keep the false heart for your own.
It is won at little cost,
But still easier is it lost.
I shall see that sunny hair
Braided with less anxious care;
