but only three in all god’s universe

have heard this word thou hast said,—himself, beside

thee speaking, and me listening! and replied

one of us . . . that was god, . . . and laid the curse

so darkly on my eyelids, as to amerce

my sight from seeing thee,—that if i had died,

the death-weights, placed there, would have signified

less absolute exclusion. “nay” is worse

from god than from all others, o my friend!

men could not part us with their worldly jars,

nor the seas change us, nor the tempests bend;

our hands would touch for all the mountain-bars:

and, heaven being rolled between us at the end,

we should but vow the faster for the stars.