"Lisa, here take my life for it is yours.     

       Do with it as you will; but do not stay     

       To add, subtract, and reckon up its cost.     

       Act a brave part and, if your love's like mine,     

       We need not fear; for what we lose we gain,     

       And, though we gain much, still to-day's to-day     

       And, while we tarry, one day's love is lost."     

  

       Ah, would that I might speak those words to-night     

       For, while I halt, another night is gone—     

       Crush'd to a mem'ry 'neath the heel of Time.     

       I'm minded even now to venture forth,     

       To go to her, although the hour is late;     

       And through the darkness, when she hears me call,     

       Only to say to her this one word, "Come."     

       Thus unto men speak Birth, Fate, Love and Death,     

       The four great captains of this brief campaign;     

       Casting a shadow at the soul's tent-door,     

       Each in his turn beckons and whispers, "Come."     

       And I to her am Death, Birth, Love and Fate;     

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