Canto CXXIII
Whatever I have said or sung,Some bitter notes my harp would give,Yea, tho’ there often seem’d to liveA contradiction on the tongue,
Yet Hope had never lost her youth;She did but look thro’ 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 strongHe set his royal signet there;
Abiding with me till I sailTo seek thee on the mystic deeps,And this electric force, that keepsA thousand pulses dancing, fail.