Twin-growth
Twin-growth
Original Text
W. Cosmo Monkhouse, A Dream of Idleness, and Other Poems (London: Edward Moxon, 1865): 25-26. 11651.aa.19 British Library
1I would not wish thee other than thou art;
2I love thee, love, so well in every part,
3 That had I power to change thee
4 In form or face or mind,
5 I could not find
6 The heart to re-arrange thee.
7For we were made to suit each other, sweet,
8Apart, uneven, but when join'd, complete,
9 With powers and failings matching
10 In each as strictly well
11 As in some shell
12 The sharp teeth interlatching.
13And so I would not have thee change, for fear
14The valves might ope and gape a little, dear.
15 But we are like the weather
16 A-changing every day,
17 And so I pray
18 That we may change together --
19Change like twin shells, that nothing can estrange,
20But ever changing never feel a change:
21 So grow for one another
22 That each may aye present
23 The complement
24 That doth fulfil the other.
Publication Start Year
1865
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 2001.
Rhyme