Not I myself know all my love for thee: <br />How should I reach so far, who cannot weigh <br />To-morrow's dower by gage of yesterday? <br />Shall birth and death, and all dark names that be <br />As doors and windows bared to some loud sea, <br />Lash deaf mine ears and blind my face with spray; <br />And shall my sense pierce love,—the last relay <br />And ultimate outpost of eternity? <br />Lo! what am I to Love, the lord of all? <br />One murmuring shell he gathers from the sand,— <br />One little heart-flame sheltered in his hand. <br />Yet through thine eyes he grants me clearest call <br />And veriest touch of powers primordial <br />That any hour-girt life may understand.<br /><br />Dante Gabriel Rossetti<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sonnet-xxxiv-the-dark-glass/
