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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  James Thomson (1834–1882)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Art

James Thomson (1834–1882)

WHAT precious thing are you making fast

In all these silken lines?

And where and to whom will it go at last?

Such subtle knots and twines!

I am tying up all my love in this,

With all its hopes and fears,

With all its anguish and all its bliss,

And its hours as heavy as years.

I am going to send it afar, afar,

To I know not where above;

To that sphere beyond the highest star

Where dwells the soul of my Love.

But in vain, in vain, would I make it fast

With countless subtle twines;

For ever its fire breaks out at last,

And shrivels all the lines.