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1865–1940

Love Within Vows

Laurence Alma-Tadema

We love, and O! we know it; yet Love's name Upon our lips a tremulous wish must die; We both were made for loving, you and I, And still was Love denied. To both it came,

More fleeting than the beauty of a flame: Now each within the other's hungering eye Beholds the corse of Joy embalmed lie, And smiles to know his penury the same.

There is no sorrow in this love, O Friend, New-sprung from ruin, tho’ our lips be sealed By silence and the world's hard fetter. Dear To me your being; yet we know nor fear

Of loss nor of possession; here's a shield Shall part us nobly faithful to the end.

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Love Within Vows · Laurence Alma-Tadema · Poetry Cove