Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke

William Morris (1834–1896)

Extracts from Love Is Enough: The Music

LOVE is enough: draw near and behold me,

Ye who pass by the way to your rest and your laughter,

And are full of the hope of the dawn coming after;

For the strong of the world have bought me and sold me

And my house is all wasted from threshold to rafter.

Pass by me, and hearken, and think of me not!

Cry out and come near; for my ears may not hearken,

And my eyes are grown dim as the eyes of the dying.

Is this the grey rack o’er the sun’s face a-flying?

Or is it your faces his brightness that darken?

Comes a wind from the sea, or is it your sighing?

Pass by me, and hearken, and pity me not!

Ye know not how void is your hope and your living:

Depart with your helping lest yet ye undo me!

Ye know not that at nightfall she draweth near to me,

There is soft speech between us and words of forgiving

Till in dead of the midnight her kisses thrill through me.

Pass by me, and hearken, and waken me not!

Wherewith will ye buy it, ye rich who behold me?

Draw out from your coffers your rest and your laughter,

And the fair gilded hope of the dawn coming after!

Nay this I sell not,—though ye bought me and sold me,—

For your house stored with such things from threshold to rafter.

Pass by me, I hearken, and think of you not!