<h2><SPAN name="page86"></SPAN><span class="pagenum"></span>“FOREVER.”</h2>
<p class="poetry"><span class="smcap">Forever</span>; ’tis
a single word!<br/>
Our rude forefathers deem’d it two:<br/>
Can you imagine so absurd<br/>
A view?</p>
<p class="poetry">Forever! What abysms of woe<br/>
The word reveals, what frenzy, what<br/>
Despair! For ever (printed so)<br/>
Did not.</p>
<p class="poetry">It looks, ah me! how trite and tame!<br/>
It fails to sadden or appal<br/>
Or solace—it is not the same<br/>
At all.</p>
<p class="poetry"><SPAN name="page87"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
87</span>O thou to whom it first occurr’d<br/>
To solder the disjoin’d, and dower<br/>
Thy native language with a word<br/>
Of power:</p>
<p class="poetry">We bless thee! Whether far or near<br/>
Thy dwelling, whether dark or fair<br/>
Thy kingly brow, is neither here<br/>
Nor there.</p>
<p class="poetry">But in men’s hearts shall be thy
throne,<br/>
While the great pulse of England beats:<br/>
Thou coiner of a word unknown<br/>
To Keats!</p>
<p class="poetry">And nevermore must printer do<br/>
As men did long ago; but run<br/>
“For” into “ever,” bidding two<br/>
Be one.</p>
<p class="poetry"><SPAN name="page88"></SPAN><span class="pagenum">p.
88</span>Forever! passion-fraught, it throws<br/>
O’er the dim page a gloom, a glamour:<br/>
It’s sweet, it’s strange; and I suppose<br/>
It’s grammar.</p>
<p class="poetry">Forever! ’Tis a single word!<br/>
And yet our fathers deem’d it two:<br/>
Nor am I confident they err’d;<br/>
Are you?</p>
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