What Will You Give?

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Title:     What Will You Give?
Author: Dora Sigerson Shorter [More Titles by Shorter]

What will you give me, if I will wed?
"A golden gown
To come sweetly down,
And deck you from foot to head."

How will you keep me, if I am cold?
"By a heart so warm,
The bravest storm
Dare not force through my strong hands' hold."

How will you please me, if I should thirst?
"Why by the rape
Of the purple grape,
Which the summer and sun have nursed."

If I should hunger what may I eat?
"For you the skies
The falcon flies,
And the hounds on the stag are fleet."

How can you comfort when fair youth dies,
When the spirit's fain
For a purer gain,
Than the satisfied flesh supplies?

"But this I promise, when starved and cold
A lonely soul
Finds for its goal
A six-foot bed and churchyard mould."

[The end]
Dora Sigerson Shorter's poem: What Will You Give?

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