Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.
By TheodoreTilton641 Cœur de Lion to Berengaria
O
Where grapes are loading down the vine,
And songs are in the throstle’s mouth,
While love’s complaints are here in mine,
Turn from the blue Tyrrhenian Sea!
Come back to me! Come back to me!
And in their wintriness they say
(With warnings by the winds foretold)
That love may grow as cold as they!
How ill the omen seems to be!
Come back to me! Come back to me!
Ere yet it be too far estranged!
Come back, and tell me that thou art
But little chilled, but little changed!
O love, my love, I love but thee!
Come back to me! Come back to me!
I long for thee from night till morn:
But love is proud, and any slight
Can sting it like a piercing thorn.
My bleeding heart cries out to thee—
Come back to me! Come back to me!
Come kiss the wound, or love may die!
How can my heart endure the doubt?
Oh, judge its anguish by its cry!
Its cry goes piercingly to thee—
Come back to me! Come back to me!
What is to thee the clustered vine?
What is to thee the throstle’s song,
Who sings of love, but not of mine?
Oh, turn from the Tyrrhenian Sea!
Come back to me! Come back to me!