Volume 4 — ORIGINAL. MY SOLDIER.
Reading edition
"Dear heart," he said, "I love you so, I dare not offer you my love Till passion purified in woe Shall worthier offering haply prove. "Then let us part. Mere absence is To love like mine enough of pain, As presence is enough of bliss; So welcome loss that leads to gain. "Yes, let us part. The bugles call, For God and you I draw the sword: Your tears will bless me if I fall, And if I live your kiss reward." He said, and parted. Long I staid To watch while tears would let me see, And longer, when he vanished, prayed That God might bring him back to me. Ah me! it was a selfish prayer To rob him of the nobler part; And God hath judged more wisely. Bear His judgment humbly, bleeding heart! Alas! I know not if I sin; In vain I wrestle with my woe. In vain I strive from grief to win That loftier love he sought to know. Mine is a woman's love alone— A woman's heart that wildly cries, "Oh! give me—give me back my own, Or lay me where my soldier lies!" D. A. C.
{101}