For death or else your love I pray.

Your love should God bestow on me,
Far less my own than yours I'll be;
For, lady, all I say or do
That's good, has come to me from you.
The very day I saw you first,
Love flamed with such an instant burst
That I have burned with hot desire
Unquenched, uncooled since roused to fire;
Since roused to fire it hath not ceased,
But day by day hath e'er increased.
When far from you my journey lies,
My love still grows and multiplies;
And when kind fortune gives me grace
To see and gaze upon your face,
I lose in dreams all sense of things;
And so I'm sure from error springs
The proverb we so often find,
That "Out of sight is out of mind."
Not out of mind are you to-night
Although, dear lady, out of sight.

When I shall see you, who can say?
But my true heart, which chose to stay
With you the very day I learned
Your loveliness, hath n'er returned;
Hath ne'er returned to me again,
But e'er hath dwelt with you since then.
Where'er you be 't is there with you
Both day and night your love to woo. . . .

O lovely lady, would I might
For all my truth see day or night
Ere life departs, when--free and bold
Or even in secret--I could fold
Within my arms your fair, sweet form,
And gaze and lavish kisses warm
On lips, on eyes, until in one
We melt a hundred,--still not done,
And faints for joy my blissful soul!
I've said too much, but self-control
Cannot forbid me once to say
The wish I've thought this many a day. . . .

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