Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

William Cox Bennett b. 1820

Be Mine, and I Will Give Thy Name

BE mine, and I will give thy name

To Memory’s care,

So well, that it shall breathe, with fame,

Immortal air,

That time and change and death shall be

Scorn’d by the life I give to thee.

I will not, like the sculptor, trust

Thy shape to stone;

That, years shall crumble into dust,

Its form unknown;

No—the white statue’s life shall be

Short, to the life I ’ll give to thee.

Not to the canvas worms may fret

Thy charms I ’ll give;

Soon shall the world those charms forget,

If there they live;

The life that colors lend shall be

Poor to the life I ’ll give to thee.

For thou shalt live, defying time

And mocking death,

In music on—O life sublime!—

A nation’s breath;

Love, in a people’s songs, shall be

The eternal life I ’ll give to thee.