I Pray you if you Love Me

I pray you if you love me, bear my joy

A little while, or let me weep your tears; I, too, have seen the quavering Fate destroy

Your destiny's bright spinning-the dull shears

Meeting not neatly, chewing at the thread,-

Nor can you well be less aware how fine, / How staunch as wire, and how unwarranted

Endures the golden fortune that is mine. I pray you for this day at least, my dear, / Fare by my side, that journey in the sun; Else must I turn me from the blossoming year

And walk in grief the way that you have gone.

Let us go forth together to the spring:

Love must be this, if it be anything.