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And I must worst deceit of best things bear.

Now dawn’s but daybreak, seas but waters are,

Night darkness only, all wide heaven just air:

And you to whom these fourteen lines I tell,

My beauty, my desire: but not my love as well.

Because my faltering feet may fail to dare

The first descendant of the steps of Hell

Give me the Word in time that triumphs there.

I too must pass into the misty hollow

Where all our living laughter stops: and hark!

The tiny stuffless voices of the dark

Have called me, called me, till I needs must follow:

Give me the Word and I’ll attempt it well.

Say it’s the little winking of an eye

Which in that issue is uncurtained quite;

A little sleep that helps a moment by

Between the thin dawn and the large daylight.

Ah! tell me more than yet was hoped of men;

Swear that’s true now, and I’ll believe it then.

When you to Acheron’s ugly water come

Where darkness is and formless mourners brood

And down the shelves of that distasteful flood

Survey the human rank in order dumb.