What Will You Do, Love?
I.
“W
hat will you do, love, when I am going
With white sail flowing,
The seas beyond—
What will you do, love, when waves divide us,
And friends may chide us
For being fond?”
“Tho’ waves divide us—and friends be chiding,
In faith abiding,
I ’ll still be true!
And I ’ll pray for thee on the stormy ocean,
In deep devotion—
That ’s what I ’ll do!”
II.
“What would you do, love, if distant tidings
Thy fond confidings
Should undermine?—
And I abiding ’neath sultry skies,
Should think other eyes
Were as bright as thine?”
“Oh, name it not:—tho’ guilt and shame
Were on thy name
I ’d still be true:
But that heart of thine—should another share it—
I could not bear it!
What would I do?”
III.
“What would you do, love, when home returning
With hopes high burning,
With wealth for you,
If my bark, which bounded o’er foreign foam,
Should be lost near home—
Ah! what would you do?”—
“So thou wert spared—I ’d bless the morrow,
In want and sorrow,
That left me you;
And I ’d welcome thee from the wasting billow,
This heart thy pillow—
That ’s what I ’d do!”