Songs & sonnets / by Edgar Lee Masters as Webster Ford [electronic text]

HELOISE TO ABELARD: A YEAR AFTER

DEAR, I send you my heart Leagues over sea—it is yours. Fate keeps our beings apart, Love still unites and endures. Absence as heavy as life Weighs on my spirit. Oh, love, Give me your strength for the strife, Sweet, your soul for me prove.

Truth that is pure as a star, Trust that time never can change, Faith that no malice can mar, Love that no doubt can estrangeGive me, who gave you my soul, All that was mine to bestow. Life hath no goodlier goal, We who have suffered must know.

Kisses that left but desire,Rapture that died in a night— Shall not the Mitylene fire Wingéd soar upward in light? Let me but think that it may, Since we are trampled by Fate Ask me no more, love, I pray, You who are noble and great.

I who have never yet prayed Pray for you, stranger to prayer; I who am weak and afraid Ask for your tenderest care. You who have cherished will keep, Guard 'gainst the pitiless goad. Love in his power may reap Other than that he has sowed.

Whether I wake or I sleep Memory haunts me with you; Sighing, I tremble, I weep, O'er the dead year that we knew. This is the message thereof: Absence makes strong and assures; Live in the dream of my love; Truth still unites and endures.