So painfully I listen as they speak,
Those who, for you, their feelings plainly show,
They say to me our future would be bleak,
And yet, I ask myself, How could they know?
Have they into thy truthful brightness gazed?
Or grasped the sound of thy melodious voice?
I find I can speak naught of thee but praise,
Nor curse thee if I e'er was given the choice,
For when I, captured, in thy presence stand
I feel within me deep a voice so pure,
I wish us to be joined hand in hand,
That we, as one, may endless time endure.
For though the world would speak all ill of thee,
I would be thine for all eternity.