| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. Sonnet: “O, were I loved as I desire to be” | | By Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892) |
| | | O, WERE I loved as I desire to be! | |
| What is there in the great sphere of the earth, | |
| Or range of evil between death and birth, | |
| That I should fear,—if I were loved by thee? | |
| All the inner, all the outer world of pain, | 5 |
| Clear love would pierce and cleave, if thou wert mine; | |
| As I have heard that somewhere in the main | |
| Fresh-water springs come up through bitter brine. | |
| ’T were joy, not fear, clasped hand in hand with thee, | |
| To wait for death—mute—careless of all ills, | 10 |
| Apart upon a mountain, though the surge | |
| Of some new deluge from a thousand hills | |
| Flung leagues of roaring foam into the gorge | |
| Below us, as far on as eye could see. | | | | |
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