Somebody's Song

 This is what I vow:
He shall have my heart to keep,
Sweetly will we stir and sleep,
 All the years, as now.
Swift the measured sands may run;
Love like this is never done;
He and I are welded one:
 This is what I vow.

 This is what I pray:
Keep him by me tenderly;
Keep him sweet in pride of me,
 Ever and a day;
Keep me from the old distress;
Let me, for our happiness,
Be the one to love the less:
 This is what I pray.

 This is what I know:
Lovers’ oaths are thin as rain;
Love’s a harbinger of pain—
 Would it were not so!
Ever is my heart a-thirst,
Ever is my love accurst;
He is neither last nor first—
 This is what I know.

from Enough Rope (1926)