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The Song Of The Young Page
by Theodosia GarrisonAll that I know of love I see
In eyes that never look at me;
All that I know of love I guess
But from another's happiness.
A beggar at the window I,
Who, famished, looks on revelry;
A slave who lifts his torch to guide
The happy bridegroom to his bride.
My granddam told me once of one
Whom all her village spat upon,
Seeing the church from out its breast
Had cast him cursed and unconfessed.
An outcast he who dared not take
The wafer that God's vicars break,
But dull-eyed watched his neighbours pass
With shining faces from the Mass.
Oh thou, my brother, take my hand,
More than one God hath blessed and banned
And hidden from man's anguished glance
The glory of his countenance.
All that I know of love I see
In eyes that never look at me;
All that I know of love I guess
But from another's happiness.