Canto CXXIII

Whatever I have said or sung,

      Some bitter notes my harp would give,

      Yea, tho' there often seem'd to live

A contradiction on the tongue,

Yet Hope had never lost her youth;

      She did but look thro' dimmer eyes;

      Or Love but play'd with gracious lies,

Because he felt so fix'd in truth:

And if the song were full of care,

      He breathed the spirit of the song;

      And if the words were sweet and strong

He set his royal signet there;

Abiding with me till I sail

      To seek thee on the mystic deeps,

      And this electric force, that keeps

A thousand pulses dancing, fail.