| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 487. Lise |
| | | By Rose Terry Cooke |
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| IF I were a cloud in heaven, | |
| I would hang over thee; | |
| If I were a star of even, | |
| I ’d rise and set for thee; | |
| For love, life, light, were given | 5 |
| Thy ministers to be. | |
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| If I were a wind’s low laughter, | |
| I ’d kiss thy hair; | |
| Or a sunbeam coming after, | |
| Lie on thy forehead fair; | 10 |
| For the world and its wide hereafter | |
| Have nought with thee to compare. | |
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| If I were a fountain leaping, | |
| Thy name should be | |
| The burden of my sweet weeping; | 15 |
| If I were a bee, | |
| My honeyed treasures keeping, | |
| ’T were all for thee! | |
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| There ’s never a tided ocean | |
| Without a shore; | 20 |
| Nor a leaf whose downward motion | |
| No dews deplore; | |
| And I dream that my devotion | |
| May move thee to sigh once more. | |
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