A Woman's Question

I am fair and young, but the rose will fade
 From my soft young cheek one day;
Will you love then, mid the falling leaves,
 As you did mid the bloom of May?
Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep
 I may launch my all on its tide?
A loving woman finds heaven or hell
 On the day she is made a bride.

 I require all things that are grand and true,
 All things that a man should be;
If you give this all, I would stake my life
 To be all you demand of me.
If you can not do this a laundress and cook
 You can hire with little pay;
But a woman's heart and a woman's life
 Are not to be won that way.

 -Elizabeth Browning