But Were I Loved

RP  writes: OK, so I mocked Tennyson and his Charge of the Light Brigade, but I like this one.

'But were I loved, as I desire to be,
What is there in the great sphere of the earth,
And range of evil between death and birth,
That I should fear, - if I were loved by thee?
All the inner, all the outer world of pain
Clear Love would  pierce and cleave, if thou wert mine,
As I have heard that, somewhere in the main,
Fresh-water springs come up through bitter brine.
'Twere joy, not fear, clasped hand -in-hand with thee,
To wait for death - mute - careless of all ills,
Apart upon a mountain, tho' the surge
Of some new deluge from a thousand hills
Flung leagues of roaring foam into the gorge
Below us, as far on as eye could see.'