if there be a better way
whereby, that i could say
what i feel for you by night or day
that holds me in perfect sway

that moment, when years away
my heart wandered astray
and reached a haven there to stay
weathering, seasons sad or gay

many summers and springs display
times and time of age and gray
yet not a grain of morbid decay
in life's tests which my love assay

youthful strides of bygone days
the careful gaits of sage
or listless as a corpse shud lay,
with you my soul will stay.