Say that I seek Him Only for love, And welcome are tortures My passion to prove. Love giving gifts Is suspicious and cold; I have all, my Beloved, When Thee I hold. Hope and devotion The good may gain; I am but worthy Of passion and pain. So noble a Lord None serves in vain, For the pay of my love Is my love's sweet pain. I love Thee, to love Thee,-- No more I desire; By faith is nourished My love's strong fire. I kiss Thy hands When I feel their blows; In the place of caresses Thou givest me woes. But in Thy chastising Is joy and peace. O Master and Love, Let Thy blows not cease. Thy beauty, Beloved, With scorn is rife, But I know that Thou lovest me, Better than life. And because thou lovest me, Lover of mine, Death can but make me Utterly Thine. I die with longing Thy face to see; Oh! sweet is the anguish Of death to me! End of Project Gutenberg's Pike County Ballads and Other Poems, by John Hay