I am for ever haunted by one dread,
That I may suddenly be swept away,
Nor have the leave to see you, and to say
Good-bye; then this is what I would have said:

I have loved summer and the longest day;
The leaves of June, the slumberous film of heat,
The bees, the swallow, and the waving wheat,
The whistling of the mowers in the hay.

I have loved words which lift the soul with wings.
Words that are windows to eternal things.
I have loved souls that to themselves are true,

Who cannot stoop and know not how to fear.
Yet hold the talisman of pity’s tear:
I have loved these because I have loved you.