⁠How can'st thou let me waste my youth in sighs?
I only ask to sit beside thy feet.
⁠Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes.
Might I but kiss thy hand! I dare not fold
⁠My arms about thee—scarcely dare to speak.
And nothing seems to me so wild and bold,
⁠As with one kiss to touch thy blessèd cheek.
Methinks if I should kiss thee, no control
⁠Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat
⁠The subtle spirit. Even while I spoke,
The bare word kiss hath made my inner soul
⁠To tremble like a lutestring, ere the note
⁠Hath melted in the silence that it broke.