Love has moods: and I am cold, <br />Very cold ofttimes to Thee; <br />Fain to slip from Thy dear hold <br />To my follies and be free. <br /> <br />Yet I love: Thou knowest all. <br />I am Thine in heat and chill; <br />Thou, Thou hast my heart in thrall, <br />All my life and all my will. <br /> <br />Thou, Immortal Lover, sure <br />Knowest the way that lovers have, <br />Now so cold, afraid, unsure, <br />Now afire with love and brave. <br /> <br />If I loved less it might be <br />That the way was smoother, less <br />Of the heavenly joys for me <br />And the cast-down bitterness. <br /> <br />I am cold -- be that Love's proof! -- <br />And I burn -- the proof again! -- <br />I would not be smooth but rough <br />Lest the smoother love should wane. <br /> <br />Give me earth or Heaven -- and yet <br />If it is Love's test to swing <br />'Twixt the earth and Heaven still set -- <br />I -- I ask no other thing.<br /><br />Katharine Tynan<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-test-19/
