4513949Poems — Love's CarefulnessKatharine Tynan
LOVE'S CAREFULNESS
Unto myself I am grown dear,
  Being dear to you;
And fearful with a double fear
  In all I do,
Lest that some evil chance should prove
Ruin of that poor thing you love.

O this woman will love her girl,
  And that her boy!
I keep not even the golden curl
  Of our dead joy;
Now both my loves in one are given
Ever to you who make my heaven.

If all our palaces were dust
  Blown on the wind,
I might some other woman trust
  To be as kind.
To love as well as I—but then
What love could bid you love again?

O generous giver, who hast given
  Once and for aye.
For life and death, for earth and heaven,
  As for to-day,
1 love myself because you hold
Every hair of my head as gold.