LXXII
Reading edition
YET now I cannot with impunity Receive the gilded pleasure of thy love. God knoweth with what zeal for it I strove. But when I feel love’s sweet community, It bringeth to me the lost unity— The loneliness, when I no longer have Near me thy spirit sent me from above, To test through pain my soul’s immunity. Then, though this cup of joy be mixed with sorrow, Once more must I drink of its poisoned draft, Whilst praying unto God to purify, With thy return of love to me, the morrow, That holds the price of that which I have quaffed; And for all time my spirit satisfy.