| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| Be Mine, and I Will Give Thy Name |
| | | William Cox Bennett (b. 1820) |
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| BE mine, and I will give thy name | |
| To Memory’s care, | |
| So well, that it shall breathe, with fame, | |
| Immortal air, | |
| That time and change and death shall be | 5 |
| Scorn’d by the life I give to thee. | |
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| I will not, like the sculptor, trust | |
| Thy shape to stone; | |
| That, years shall crumble into dust, | |
| Its form unknown; | 10 |
| No—the white statue’s life shall be | |
| Short, to the life I ’ll give to thee. | |
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| Not to the canvas worms may fret | |
| Thy charms I ’ll give; | |
| Soon shall the world those charms forget, | 15 |
| If there they live; | |
| The life that colors lend shall be | |
| Poor to the life I ’ll give to thee. | |
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| For thou shalt live, defying time | |
| And mocking death, | 20 |
| In music on—O life sublime!— | |
| A nation’s breath; | |
| Love, in a people’s songs, shall be | |
| The eternal life I ’ll give to thee. | |
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