Page:Poems Rossetti.djvu/175

"Take my share of a fickle heart,
 Mine of a paltry love:
Take it or leave it as you will,
 I wash my hands thereof."

"And what you leave," said Nell, "I'll take,
 And what you spurn, I'll wear;
For he's my lord for better and worse,
 And him I love, Maude Clare.

"Yea, though you're taller by the head,
 More wise, and much more fair;
I'll love him till he loves me best,
 Me best of all, Maude Clare."

ECHO.

COME to me in the silence of the night;
 Come in the speaking silence of a dream;
Come with soft rounded cheeks and eyes as bright
 As sunlight on a stream
  Come back in tears,
O memory, hope, love of finished years.

O dream how sweet, too sweet, too bitter sweet,
 Whose wakening should have been in Paradise,
Where souls brimfull of love abide and meet;
 Where thirsting longing eyes
  Watch the slow door
That opening, letting in, lets out no more.