How Shall I Love You?

1895

How shall I love you? I dream all day,
Dear, of a tenderer, sweeter way.
Songs that I sing to you, words that I say,
Prayers that are voiceless on lips that would pray —
These may not tell of the love of my life.
How shall I love you, my sweetheart, my wife?

How shall I love you? Love is the bread
Of life to a woman — the white and the red
Of all the world's roses, the light that is shed
On all the world's pathways, till life shall be dead!
The star in the storm and the strength in the strife.
How shall I love you, my sweetheart, my wife?

Is there a burden your heart must bear?
I shall kneel lowly and lift it, dear.
Is there a thorn in the crown that you wear?
Let it hide in my heart till a rose blossom there.
For grief or for glory — for death or for life,
So shall I love you, my sweetheart, my wife.

— Frank L. Stanton in Ladies' Home Journal.