Love and Life

“give me a fillet, Love,” quoth I, “To bind my Sweeting’s heart to me, So ne’er a chance of earth or sky Shall part us ruthlessly: A fillet, Love, but not to chafe My Sweeting’s soul, to cause her pain; But just to bind her close and safe Through snow and blossom sun and rain: A fillet, boy!” Love said, “Here ’s joy.” “Give me a fetter, Life,” quoth I, “To bind to mine my Sweeting’s heart, So Death himself must fail to pry With Time the two apart: A fetter, Life, that each shall wear, Whose precious bondage each shall know. I prithee, Life, no more forbear— Why dost thou wait and falter so? Haste, Life—be brief!” Said Life:—“Here ’s grief.”

Collection: 
English
Julie Mathilde Lippmann

More from Poet

  • The Pines

    Throughout the soft and sunlit day The pennoned pines, in strict array, Stand grim and silent, gaunt and gray. But when the blasts of winter keen, They whisper each to each, and lean Like comrades with a bond between. And seeing them deport them so, One almost thinks they seek to show How mortal...

  • Stone Walls

    Along the country roadside, stone on stone, Past waving grain-field, and near broken stile, The walls stretch onward, an uneven pile, With rankling vines and lichen overgrown: So stand they sentinel. Unchanged, alone, They ’re left to watch the seasons’ passing slow: The summer’s sunlight or the...

  • Love and Life

    “give me a fillet, Love,” quoth I, “To bind my Sweeting’s heart to me, So ne’er a chance of earth or sky Shall part us ruthlessly: A fillet, Love, but not to chafe My Sweeting’s soul, to cause her pain; But just to bind her close and safe Through snow and blossom sun and rain: A fillet,...