I love to feel your hand, beloved,
I love to feel your hand;
Then hold me fast until we part
Upon the gloomy strand,
And I upon the silent sea
Go forth alone from love and thee!
I love to see your smile, which says
What else you dare not say:
It gilds for me the gloomy shore,
It seems to light my way.
Brave love, keep back your tears awhile
That parting I may see you smile!
Oh, let me hear your voice, beloved,—
Your face I see no more!
That tender voice still sounds above
The breakers of the shore;
And for a space may follow me
Out, out upon the silent sea!
One kiss upon my lips, sad lips
That cannot kiss thee back,
Let love proclaim his bitter truth—
Bear witness on the rack!
One kiss, the longest and the last,
Resuming all the sacred past!
Oh love that seems to rise as rise
The waters of that sea,
To rise and overflow, and float
My soul, O God, to thee!
Thy voice, thy smile, thy kiss, thy breath,
Beloved, have rapt my soul from death!