| |
| I KNOW that deep within your heart of hearts | |
| You hold me shrined apart from common things, | |
| And that my step, my voice, can bring to you | |
| A gladness that no other presence brings. | |
| |
| And yet, dear love, through all the weary days | 5 |
| You never speak one word of tenderness, | |
| Nor stroke my hair, nor softly clasp my hand | |
| Within your own in loving, mute caress. | |
| |
| You think, perhaps, I should be all content | |
| To know so well the loving place I hold | 10 |
| Within your life, and so you do not dream | |
| How much I long to hear the story told. | |
| |
| You cannot know, when we two sit alone, | |
| And tranquil thoughts within your mind are stirred, | |
| My heart is crying like a tired child | 15 |
| For one fond look, one gentle, loving word. | |
| |
| It may be when your eyes look into mine | |
| You only say, “How dear she is to me!” | |
| Oh, could I read it in your softened glance, | |
| How radiant this plain old world would be! | 20 |
| |
| Perhaps, sometimes, you breathe a secret prayer | |
| That choicest blessings unto me be given; | |
| But if you said aloud, “God bless thee, dear!” | |
| I should not ask a greater boon from Heaven. | |
| |
| I weary sometimes of the rugged way; | 25 |
| But should you say, “Through thee my life is sweet,” | |
| The dreariest desert that our path could cross | |
| Would suddenly grow green beneath my feet. | |
| |
| ’T is not the boundless waters ocean holds | |
| That give refreshment to the thirsty flowers, | 30 |
| But just the drops that, rising to the skies, | |
| From thence descend in softly falling showers. | |
| |
| What matter that our granaries are filled | |
| With all the richest harvest’s golden stores, | |
| If we who own them cannot enter in, | 35 |
| But famished stand before the close-barred doors? | |
| |
| And so ’t is sad that those who should be rich | |
| In that true love that crowns our earthly lot, | |
| Go praying with white lips from day to day | |
| For love’s sweet tokens, and receive them not. | 40 |
| |
