<html xmlns:tei="http://www.tei-c.org/ns/1.0"><body><h1 align="center" class="head">The Test</h1><div class="stanza"><p class="line"><span class="smallcaps">Love</span> has moods: and I am cold,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Very cold ofttimes to Thee;</p><p class="line">Fain to slip from Thy dear hold</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">To my follies and be free.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Yet I love: Thou knowest all.</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I am Thine in heat and chill;</p><p class="line">Thou, Thou hast my heart in thrall,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">All my life and all my will.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Thou, Immortal Lover, sure</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Knowest the way that lovers have,</p><p class="line">Now so cold, afraid, unsure,</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Now afire with love and brave.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">If I loved less it might be</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">That the way was smoother, less</p><p class="line">Of the heavenly joys for me</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And the cast-down bitterness.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">I am cold -- be that Love's proof! --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">And I burn -- the proof again! --</p><p class="line">I would not be smooth but rough</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">Lest the smoother love should wane.</p></div><div class="stanza"><p class="line">Give me earth or Heaven -- and yet</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">If it is Love's test to swing</p><p class="line">'Twixt the earth and Heaven still set --</p><p class="line" style="text-indent:5%">I -- I ask no other thing.</p></div></body></html>
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Part of The Test