Canto 16I have a hundred lives

Book 2. Part Two - Baroda Circa 1898 – 1902

Baroda, c. 1898–1902

Rose, I have loved

Rose, I have loved thy beauty, as I love

The dress that thou hast worn, the transient grass,

5O’er which thy happy careless footsteps move,

The yet-thrilled waysides that have watched thee pass.

Soul, I have loved thy sweetness as men love

The necessary air they crave to breathe,

The sunlight lavished from the skies above,

10And firmness of the earth their steps beneath.

But were that beauty all, my love might cease

Like love of weaker spirits; were’t thy charm

And grace of soul, mine might with age decrease

Or find in Death a silence and a term,

15But rooted in the unnameable in thee

Shall triumph and transcend eternity.

I have a hundred lives

I have a hundred lives before me yet

To grasp thee in, O spirit ethereal,

20Be sure I will with heart insatiate

Pursue thee like a hunter through them all.

Thou yet shalt turn back on the eternal way

And with awakened vision watch me come

Smiling a little at errors past, and lay

25Thy eager hand in mine, its proper home.

Meanwhile made happy by thy happiness

I shall approach thee in things and people dear

And in thy spirit’s motions half-possess

Loving what thou hast loved, shall feel thee near,

30Until I lay my hands on thee indeed

Somewhere among the stars, as ’twas decreed.