<h2><SPAN name="poem84"></SPAN>IF</h2>
<p class="poetry">Dear love, if you and I could sail away,<br/>
With snowy pennons to the winds unfurled,<br/>
Across the waters of some unknown bay,<br/>
And find some island far from all the world;</p>
<p class="poetry">If we could dwell there, evermore alone,<br/>
While unrecorded years slip by apace,<br/>
Forgetting and forgotten and unknown<br/>
By aught save native song-birds of the place;</p>
<p class="poetry">If Winter never visited that land,<br/>
And Summer’s lap spilled o’er with
fruits and flowers,<br/>
And tropic trees cast shade on every hand,<br/>
And twinèd boughs formed sleep-inviting
bowers;</p>
<p class="poetry">If from the fashions of the world set free,<br/>
And hid away from all its jealous strife,<br/>
I lived alone for you, and you for me—<br/>
Ah! then, dear love, how sweet were wedded life.</p>
<p class="poetry">But since we dwell here in the crowded way,<br/>
Where hurrying throngs rush by to seek for gold,<br/>
And all is commonplace and work-a-day<br/>
As soon as love’s young honeymoon grows
old;</p>
<p class="poetry">Since fashion rules and nature yields to
art,<br/>
And life is hurt by daily jar and fret,<br/>
’Tis best to shut such dreams down in the heart<br/>
And go our ways alone, love, and forget.</p>
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