Read "Could I but Will" by Thomas Hardy online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
(SONG: _Verses_ 1, 3, _key major_; _verse_ 2, _key minor_)
COULD I but will, / Will to my bent, / I'd have afar ones near me still, / And music of rare ravishment, / In strains that move the toes and heels! / And when the sweethearts sat for rest / The unbetrothed should foot with zest / Ecstatic reels.
Could I be head, / Head-god, "Come, now, / Dear girl," I'd say, "whose flame is fled, / Who liest with linen-banded brow, / Stirred but by shakes from Earth's deep core-" / I'd say to her: "Unshroud and meet / That Love who kissed and called thee Sweet! - / Yea, come once more!"
Even half-god power / In spinning dooms / Had I, this frozen scene should flower, / And sand-swept plains and Arctic glooms / Should green them gay with waving leaves, / Mid which old friends and I would walk / With weightless feet and magic talk / Uncounted eves.