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| OH! knowest thou, dear one, the love of youth | |
| With its wayward fancies, its untried truth; | |
| Yet cloudless and warm as the sunny ray | |
| That opens the flowers of a summer’s day, | |
| Unfolding the passionate thoughts that lie | 5 |
| ’Mid feelings pure as an angel’s sigh; | |
| Till the loftiest strength of our nature wakes | |
| As an infant giant from slumber breaks: | |
| Oh, knowest thou, dear, what this love may be? | |
| In earlier days such was mine for thee. | 10 |
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| Oh, knowest thou, dear one, of woman’s love | |
| With its faith that woes more deeply prove; | |
| Its fondness wide as the limitless wave, | |
| And chainless by aught than the silent grave; | |
| With devotion as humble as that which brings | 15 |
| To his idol the Indian’s offerings; | |
| Yet proud as that which the priestess feels, | |
| When she nurses the flame of the shrine while she knee | |
| Oh, knowest thou, dear, what this love may be? | |
| Such ever has been in my heart for thee. | 20 |
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| Oh knowest thou the love of a poet’s soul, | |
| Of the mind that from heaven its brightness stole, | |
| When the gush of song, like the life-blood springs | |
| Uncheck’d from the heart, and the spirit’s wings | |
| Are nerved anew in a loftier flight | 25 |
| To seek for its idol a crown of light; | |
| When the visions that wake beneath fancy’s beam, | |
| But serve to brighten an earthly dream: | |
| Oh, knowest thou, dear, what this love may be? | |
| Such long has been in my heart for thee. | 30 |
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| Oh, tell me, dear, can such love decay | |
| Like the sapless weed in the morning ray? | |
| Can the love of earlier, brighter years | |
| Be chased away like an infant’s tears? | |
| Can the long tried faith of a woman’s heart | 35 |
| Like a summer bird from its nest depart? | |
| Can affection nursed within fancy’s bowers, | |
| Find deadly herbs ’mid those fragrant flowers? | |
| Oh! no, beloved one, it cannot be: | |
| Such end awaits not my love for thee. | 40 |
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| Youth’s pure fresh feelings have faded now; | |
| But not less warm is love’s summer glow; | |
| Dark frowns may wither, unkindness blight | |
| The heart where thou art the only light; | |
| And coldness may freeze the wild gush of song, | 45 |
| Or chill the spirit once tameless and strong; | |
| And the pangs of neglected love may prey | |
| Too fatally, dear, on this fragile clay; | |
| But never, Oh! never beloved, can it be | |
| That my heart should forget its deep fondness for thee. | 50 |
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