I leave for thee, beloved one, <br />The home and friends of youth, <br />Trusting my hopes, my happiness, <br />Unto thy love and truth; <br />I leave for thee my girlhood's joys, <br />Its sunny, careless mirth, <br />To bear henceforth my share amid <br />The many cares of earth. <br /> <br />And yet, no wild regret I give <br />To all that now I leave, <br />The golden dreams, the flow'ry wreaths <br />That I no more may weave; <br />The future that before me lies <br />A dark and unknown sea -- <br />Whate'er may be its storms or shoals, <br />I brave them all with thee! <br /> <br />I will not tell thee now of love <br />Whose life, ere this, thou'st guessed, <br />And which, like sacred secret, long <br />Was treasured in my breast; <br />Enough that if thy lot be calm, <br />Or storms should o'er it sweep, <br />Thou'lt learn that it is woman's love, <br />Unchanging, pure and deep. <br /> <br />If this life's sunshine gild thy lot, <br />Bestowing wealth and pride, <br />Its light enjoying, I shall stand, <br />Rejoicing, at thy side; <br />But, oh! if thou should'st prove the griefs <br />That blight thy fellow-men, <br />'Twill be my highest, dearest right, <br />To be, love, with thee then. <br /> <br />And thou, wilt thou not promise me <br />Thy heart will never change, <br />That tones and looks, so loving now, <br />Will ne'er grow stern and strange? <br />That thou'lt be kind, whatever faults <br />Or failings may be mine, <br />And bear with them in patient love, <br />As I will bear with thine?<br /><br />Rosanna Eleanor Leprohon<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-my-husband-on-our-wedding-day/
