SOME have won a wild delight, <br /> By daring wilder sorrow; <br />Could I gain thy love to-night, <br /> I'd hazard death to-morrow. <br /> <br />Could the battle-struggle earn <br /> One kind glance from thine eye, <br />How this withering heart would burn, <br /> The heady fight to try ! <br /> <br />Welcome nights of broken sleep, <br /> And days of carnage cold, <br />Could I deem that thou wouldst weep <br /> To hear my perils told. <br /> <br />Tell me, if with wandering bands <br /> I roam full far away, <br />Wilt thou, to those distant lands, <br /> In spirit ever stray ? <br /> <br />Wild, long, a trumpet sounds afar; <br /> Bid mebid me go <br />Where Seik and Briton meet in war, <br /> On Indian Sutlej's flow. <br /> <br />Blood has dyed the Sutlej's waves <br /> With scarlet stain, I know; <br />Indus' borders yawn with graves, <br /> Yet, command me go ! <br /> <br />Though rank and high the holocaust <br /> Of nations, steams to heaven, <br />Glad I'd join the death-doomed host, <br /> Were but the mandate given. <br /> <br />Passion's strength should nerve my arm, <br /> Its ardour stir my life, <br />Till human force to that dread charm <br />Should yield and sink in wild alarm, <br /> Like trees to tempest-strife. <br /> <br />If, hot from war, I seek thy love, <br /> Darest thou turn aside ? <br />Darest thou, then, my fire reprove, <br /> By scorn, and maddening pride ? <br /> <br />Nomy will shall yet control <br /> Thy will, so high and free, <br />And love shall tame that haughty soul <br /> Yestenderest love for me. <br /> <br />I'll read my triumph in thine eyes, <br /> Behold, and prove the change; <br />Then leave, perchance, my noble prize, <br /> Once more in arms to range. <br /> <br />I'd die when all the foam is up, <br /> The bright wine sparkling high; <br />Nor wait till in the exhausted cup <br /> Life's dull dregs only lie. <br /> <br />Then Love thus crowned with sweet reward, <br /> Hope blest with fulness large, <br />I'd mount the saddle, draw the sword, <br /> And perish in the charge !<br /><br />Charlotte Brontë<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/passion/
