Classic Poem

" We that so long have held each other dear,
Join hands, Beloved; purposing to be
One hand and life, one effort and career,
One soul and self, into Eternity. "

Can the lover share his soul,
Or the mistress show her mind;
Can the body beauty share,
Or lust satisfaction find?

Marriage is but keeping house,
Sharing food and company,
What has this to do with love
Or the body's beauty?

If love means affection, I
Love old trees, hats, coats and things,
Anything that's been with me
In my daily sufferings.

That is how one loves a wife —
There's a human interest too,
And a pity for the days
We so soon live through.

What has this to do with love,
The anguish and the sharp despair,
The madness roving in the blood
Because a girl or hill is fair?

I have stared upon a dawn
And trembled like a man in love;
A man in love I was, and I
Could not speak and could not move.

I no longer seek to hold
Beauty with enchanted eyes;
'Tis vain, for beauty dies, I know,
I know beauty dies.

Ring the merry marriage bells,
That most melancholy sound!
When the bridegroom and the bride
Go to find what none has found.

All the old wives grimly there
Pleased to see love's sudden end,
Beauty's last wild wood-note blown,
Death the solitary friend.

Ay! Death sitting in the church,
Busy getting breath anew,
Tuning up the magic horn
That the old lust blew.