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Title: Ballade Of The Unchanging Beloved
Author: Richard Le Gallienne [
More Titles by Le Gallienne]
(TO I----a)
When rumour fain would fright my ear
With the destruction and decay
Of things familiar and dear,
And vaunt of a swift-running day
That sweeps the fair old Past away;
Whatever else be strange and new,
All other things may go or stay,
So that there be no change in you.
These loud mutations others fear
Find me high-fortressed 'gainst dismay,
They trouble not the tranquil sphere
That hallows with immortal ray
The world where love and lovers stray
In glittering gardens soft with dew--
O let them break and burn and slay,
So that there be no change in you.
Let rapine its republics rear,
And murder its red sceptre sway,
Their blood-stained riot comes not near
The quiet haven where we pray,
And work and love and laugh and play;
Unchanged, our skies are ever blue,
Nothing can change, for all they say,--
So that there be no change in you.
ENVOI
Princess, let wild men brag and bray,
The pure, the beautiful, the true.
Change not, and changeless we as they--
So that there be no change in you.
[The end]
Richard Le Gallienne's poem: Ballade Of The Unchanging Beloved
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