XL
Reading edition
HOW often have I asked, through this past year, If all that I have suffered did repay My fleeting joy of Heaven for a day; That made thy soul at once to me more dear Than all else in the whole wide world. I fear That, in my heart, I may not truly say It brought Love’s recompense within its way, Or caused the lowering of Love’s sky to clear. And yet, although thou wouldst misuse my love, Without apparently one real regret, How shall I, loving as I do, despair That thou mayst still, some happy day, disprove The charge that stains thy name: soon to forget That which thou wert the first one to declare?