Explore "To One Across the Way" by Ambrose Bierce on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
When at your window radiant you've stood / I've sometimes thought -- forgive me if I've erred -- / That some slight thought of me perhaps has stirred / Your heart to beat less gently than it should.
I know you beautiful; that you are good / I hope -- or fear -- I cannot choose the word, / Nor rightly suit it to the thought. I've heard / Reason at love's dictation never could.
Blindly to this dilemma so I grope, / As one whose every pathway has a snare: / If you are minded in the saintly fashion / Of your pure face my passion's without hope; / If not, alas! I equally despair, / For what to me were hope without the passion?