PLACE your hands in mine, dear, With their rose-leaf touch: If you heed my warning, It will spare you much. Ah! with just such smiling Unbelieving eyes, Years ago I heard it: -- You shall be more wise. You have one great treasure, Joy for all your life; Do not let it perish In one reckless strife. Do not venture all, child, In one frail, weak heart; So, through any shipwreck, You may save a part. Where your soul is tempted Most to trust your fate, There, with double caution, Linger, fear, and wait. Measure all you give, still Counting what you take; Love for love, so placing Each an equal stake. Treasure love; though ready Still to live without. In your fondest trust, keep Just one thread of doubt. Build on no to-morrow; Love has but to-day: If the links seem slackening, Cut the bond away. Trust no prayer nor promise; Words are grains of sand: To keep your heart unbroken, Hold it in your hand. That your love may finish Calm as it begun, Learn this lesson better, Dear, than I have done. Years hence, perhaps, this warning You shall give again, In just the self-same words, dear, And -- just as much -- in vain. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...PROMETHEUS by GEORGE GORDON BYRON THE BARON'S LAST BANQUET by ALBERT GORTON GREENE THE CHILDREN'S HOUR by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW WOULD I KNEW! by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM GOLDEN HILL by HAMILTON FISH ARMSTRONG THE SURRENDER by JOSEPH BEAUMONT O.M.B. (DIED NOVEMBER, 1874) by FORD MADOX BROWN AN ELEGY OF HENRY, PRINCE OF WALES by WILLIAM BROWNE (1591-1643) |