"If I am destined to be happy with you here—how short is the longest Life. I wish to believe in immortality—I wish to live with you for ever." —John Keats
The above is from a letter written by John Keats to Fanny Brawne ca. 1820. You can find the complete letter at the Internet Archive.
I believe Florence Earle Coates' poem LET ME BELIEVE was written after this letter. The poem was given two different titles in 1903 (see images below), and both instances reference publication in The Century Magazine; yet I find no evidence that it was so published. What I do know is that the poem was published in Mrs. Coates' first volume of poetry, Poems (1898).
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| Unknown source. |
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| From the April 1903 issue of City and State. |
LET me believe you, love, or let me die!"Let Me Believe" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Poems (1898) and Poems (1916) Volume I.
If on your faith I may not rest secure,
Beyond all chance of peradventure sure,
Trusting your half-avowals sweet and shy,
As trusts the lark the pallid, dawn-lit sky—
Then would I rather in some grave obscure
Repose forlorn, than living on, endure
A question each dear transport to belie!
It is a pain to thirst and do without,
A pain to suffer what we deem unjust,
To win a joy—and lay it in the dust;
But there's a fiercer pain—the pain of doubt;
From other griefs Death sets the spirit free;
Doubt steals the light from immortality!
