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C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Poet’s Song to his Wife

By Bryan Waller Procter (Barry Cornwall) (1787–1874)

HOW many summers, Love,

Have I been thine?

How many days, thou dove,

Hast thou been mine?

Time, like the winged wind

When ’t bends the flowers,

Hath left no mark behind,

To count the hours.

Some weight of thought, though loth,

On thee he leaves;

Some lines of care round both

Perhaps he weaves;

Some fears—a soft regret

For joys scarce known;

Sweet looks we half forget;

All else is flown.

Ah! with what thankless heart

I mourn and sing!

Look where our children start,

Like sudden Spring!

With tongues all sweet and low,

Like a pleasant rhyme,

They tell how much I owe

To thee and Time!