Classic Poem

I.

L OVE can wait!
Being so patient it is strong;
If in this world it wait in vain,
It surely shall not suffer long;
For in some other state,
Some life of larger scope,
It ultimately shall attain
The full fruition of its hope.
This is love's faith; defying fate,
Time, change, neglect and laughter,
It can wait
For the Hereafter.

II.

Say that this life is all we know,
And death has nothing to bestow,
Beyond the grave's duress,
But silence and forgetfulness;
Then if I count the cost,
Seeing love's self is sacrifice —
I surely have not lost,
If with this life love dies.

III.

But love's desire,
Being so patient and so sure,
Though it may pass through tears and fire,
Ay, through the portals of the tomb —
Will yet endure,
Till its own time shall come;
Therefore, though never while we live,
It may be mine to ask or yours to give —
Though you may pass beyond my ken,
And I be lost
Among the crowd of nameless men —
Though both be tempest tost
To earth's extremest ends afar,
I know that we shall meet again,
Meet and be one in perfect love,
But when and where —
Whether in this earth here, or heaven above,
Or in some unimagined world or star,
I neither know nor care;
Early or late,
Love can wait.