Robert Silliman Hillyer - "Let those who love hear me; I speak as one" lyrics

Let those who love hear me; I speak as one Who hath known every portion of love's pain, And all the swift delights that flare and wane Between the setting and the rising sun. Sins have I known whose sweetness left no stain, And virtues that much villainy have done, But now the pattern that my heart has spun Is finished, and I see that it is vain. Vain is the virgin kiss, and vain the thought That binds the heart's desire from afar, Each loves the image his own mind has wrought, Each worships no true spirit, but a star. By none is this believed until the years Reveal the sad deception, and with tears.