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| WHAT shall I do with all the days and hours | |
| That must be counted ere I see thy face? | |
| How shall I charm the interval that lowers | |
| Between this time and that sweet time of grace? | |
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| Shall I in slumber steep each weary sense, | 5 |
| Weary with longing?—shall I flee away | |
| Into past days, and with some fond pretence | |
| Cheat myself to forget the present day? | |
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| Shall love for thee lay on my soul the sin | |
| Of casting from me God’s great gift of time? | 10 |
| Shall I, these mists of memory locked within, | |
| Leave and forget life’s purposes sublime? | |
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| O, how or by what means may I contrive | |
| To bring the hour that brings thee back more near? | |
| How may I teach my drooping hope to live | 15 |
| Until that blessèd time, and thou art here? | |
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| I ’ll tell thee; for thy sake I will lay hold | |
| Of all good aims, and consecrate to thee, | |
| In worthy deeds, each moment that is told | |
| While thou, belovèd one! art far from me. | 20 |
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| For thee I will arouse my thoughts to try | |
| All heavenward flights, all high and holy strains; | |
| For thy dear sake I will walk patiently | |
| Through these long hours, nor call their minutes pains. | |
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| I will this dreary blank of absence make | 25 |
| A noble task-time; and will therein strive | |
| To follow excellence, and to o’ertake | |
| More good than I have won since yet I live. | |
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| So may this doomèd time build up in me | |
| A thousand graces, which shall thus be thine; | 30 |
| So may my love and longing hallowed be, | |
| And thy dear thought an influence divine. | |
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