I would keep that heart as the thought of heaven,
I only should know, and to enter there
No heathen should look therein;
And so on the eve of some blissful day,
As a heart so loving and true,
Of old, and nothing seems changed.
That another had stolen one thought away
You think you love again as you did
I must hold myself from sin.
It should ne'er know pain, be weary, or weep,
But ah, I should know that heart so well,
On glimmering splendours of love, and stay
My good should be done, my gift be given,
Never to open it more.
That so long as I changed not I could foretell
Where precious jewels are ranged,
And it did not open to me.
In hope of the recompense there; yea, even
Its chaste marmoreal beauty rare
A memory each; as you raise the lid,
My life should be led in that heart.
I would keep that heart as a casket hid
In that heart shut up from the world away,
Lest aught in the heart were changed, or say
To dwell in a life apart,
The giver might live at ease or sleep;
With love for the golden key,
From within we should close the door
As a heart that I held with a golden spell,
How I should tremble day after day,
If one should give me a heart to keep,
The heart watched over by me.
As I touched with the golden key,
I would keep that heart as a temple fair,
That heart would be changeless too.