Let Love Go, If Go She Will

by Robert Louis Stevenson

　　Let Love Go, If Go She Will

　　Let love go, if go she will.

　　Seek not, O fool, her wanton flight to stay.

　　Of all she gives and takes away

　　The best remains behind her still.

　　The best remains behind; in vain

　　Joy she may give and take again,

　　Joy she may take and leave us pain,

　　If yet she leave behind

　　The constant mind

　　To meet all fortunes nobly, to endure

　　All things with a good heart, and still be pure,

　　Still to be foremost in the foremost cause,

　　And still be worthy of the love that was.

　　Love coming is omnipotent indeed,

　　But not Love going. Let her go. The seed

　　Springs in the favouring Summer air, and grows,

　　And waxes strong; and when the Summer goes,

　　Remains, a perfect tree.

　　Joy she may give and take again,

　　Joy she may take and leave us pain.

　　O Love, and what care we?

　　For one thing thou hast given, O Love, one thing

　　Is ours that nothing can remove;

　　And as the King discrowned is still a King,

　　The unhappy lover still preserves his love.