O love that is not Love, but dear, so dear!
   That is not love because it goes full soon,
   Like flower born and dead within one moon,
And yet is love, for that it comes too near
The guarded fane where love alone may peer,
   Ere, like young spring by summer soon outshone,
   It trembles into death; yet comes anon
As thoughts of spring will come though summer's here.

O star prelusive to a dream more fair,
   Within my heart I'll keep a heaven for thee
   Where thou mayst freely come and freely go,
Touching with thy faint gold ere I am 'ware
   A twilight hope -- a dawn I did not see --
   O love that is not Love, but nearly so!