| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 326. Love Unchangeable |
| | | By Rufus Dawes |
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| YES, still I love thee! Time, who sets | |
| His signet on my brow, | |
| And dims my sunken eye, forgets | |
| The heart he could not bow, | |
| Where love, that cannot perish, grows | 5 |
| For one, alas! that little knows | |
| How love may sometimes last, | |
| Like sunshine wasting in the skies, | |
| When clouds are overcast. | |
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| The dew-drop hanging o’er the rose, | 10 |
| Within its robe of light, | |
| Can never touch a leaf that blows, | |
| Though seeming to the sight; | |
| And yet it still will linger there, | |
| Like hopeless love without despair,— | 15 |
| A snow-drop in the sun: | |
| A moment finely exquisite, | |
| Alas! but only one. | |
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| I would not have thy married heart | |
| Think momently of me; | 20 |
| Nor would I tear the cords apart, | |
| That bind me so to thee; | |
| No! while my thoughts seem pure and mild, | |
| Like dew upon the roses wild, | |
| I would not have thee know | 25 |
| The stream, that seems to thee so still, | |
| Has such a tide below. | |
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| Enough that in delicious dreams | |
| I see thee and forget,— | |
| Enough, that when the morning beams | 30 |
| I feel my eyelids wet! | |
| Yet, could I hope, when Time lets fall | |
| The darkness for creation’s pall, | |
| To meet thee,—and to love,— | |
| I would not shrink from aught below, | 35 |
| Nor ask for more above. | |
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