Vivien’s Song

Alfred Lord Tennyson

 

In Love, if Love be Love, if Love be ours,

Faith and unfaith can ne’er be equal powers:

Unfaith in aught is want of faith in all.

 

It is the little rift within the lute,

That by and by will make the music mute,

And ever widening slowly silence all.

 

The little rift within the lover’s lute

Or little pitted speck in garnered fruit,

That rotting inward slowly moulders all.

 

“Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.” Songs of Solomon 2:15