… And down by the brimming river
I heard a lover sing
Under an arch of the railway.
“Love has no ending.
I’ll love you, dear, I’ll love you
Till China and Africa meet,
And the river jumps over the mountain
And the salmon sing in the street,
I’ll love you till the ocean
Is folded and hung up to dry
And the seven stars go squawking
Like geese about the sky.
The years shall run like rabbits,
For in my arms I hold
The Flower of the Ages,
And the first love of the world.”



From ‘As I walked out one evening’ W.A. Auden.