In Memoriam 125. [Whatever I have said or sung]

Whatever I have said or sung,
      Some bitter notes my harp would give,
      Yea, tho’ there often seem’d to live
A contradiction on the tongue,

Yet Hope had never lost her youth;
      She did but look through dimmer eyes;
      Or Love but play’d with gracious lies,
Because he felt so fix’d in truth:

And if the song were full of care,
      He breathed the spirit of the song;
      And if the words were sweet and strong
He set his royal signet there;

Abiding with me till I sail
      To seek thee on the mystic deeps,
      And this electric force, that keeps
A thousand pulses dancing, fail.