Chapter XLIX

For what strange purpose hath God sent this longing
Unto my soul, for thy most precious love,
To raise it suddenly to realms above,
And then deliver it to one belonging
More to the realm of Satan’s world, destroying
The fair ideal that all my life I strove
To realize? Oh, cause me to remove
This spell that is no happiness employing!
Yet who that falleth in love’s meshes knoweth
Why he hath fallen, or from whence he fell,
Or who in truth can understand love’s reason,
Save that some joy and pain it often soweth;
The most of which we cannot always tell,
When they at first appear in love’s sweet season.