LXVI
Reading edition
IF in the years to come life bringeth thee Some of love’s sorrow, to carry in thine hand; If thou shouldst thus experience it, and By its strange weight, be forced to think and see What youth casts from it in its extasy; Then only couldst thou learn to understand How suffering hath held me in its band, Since I first found how cruel love could be. Ah me! Though by this means thou mightest come To know the value of love’s equipage, And in its chariot ride toward my soul, I would not wish that thou shouldst know, as some Like me have known, from youth to hoary age, The price they pay to reach so dear a goal.