I Will Not Let Thee Go by Robert Seymour Bridges. Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. 1895. A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

I Will Not Let Thee Go

Robert Seymour Bridges (1844–1930)


I WILL not let thee go.
Ends all our month-long love in this?
Can it be summ’d up so,
Quit in a single kiss?
I will not let thee go.	5

I will not let thee go.
If thy words’breath could scare thy deeds,
As the soft south can blow
And toss the feather’d seeds,
Then might I let thee go.	10

I will not let thee go.
Had not the great sun seen, I might;
Or were he reckon’d slow
To bring the false to light,
Then might I let thee go.	15

I will not let thee go.
The stars that crowd the summer skies
Have watch’d us so below
With all their million eyes,
I dare not let thee go.	20

I will not let thee go.
Have we not chid the changeful moon,
Now rising late, and now
Because she set too soon,
And shall I let thee go?	25

I will not let thee go.
Have not the young flowers been content,
Pluck’d ere their buds could blow,
To seal our sacrament?

I cannot let thee go.	30
I will not let thee go.
I hold thee by too many bands:
Thou sayest farewell, and, lo!
I have thee by the hands,
And will not let thee go.	35