But only three in all God's universe br Have heard this word thou hast said,--Himself, beside br Thee speaking, and me listening ! and replied br One of us . . . that was God, . . . and laid the curse br So darkly on my eyelids, as to amerce br My sight from seeing thee,--that if I had died, br The deathweights, placed there, would have signified br Less absolute exclusion. 'Nay' is worse br From God than from all others, O my friend ! br Men could not part us with their worldly jars, br Nor the seas change us, nor the tempests bend; br Our hands would touch for all the mountain-bars: br And, heaven being rolled between us at the end, br We should but vow the faster for the stars.