Mine and Thine (1904)/United

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Mine and Thine (1904) by Florence Earle Coates United

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This poem as a whole was not included in Mrs. Coates' collected Poems (1916, in 2 vols.); however, the first stanza is reused by Mrs. Coates in a poem entitled "Secure"—published in The Unconquered Air, and Other Poems (1912), and also subsequently in the 1916 2-vol. collection.

UNITED

Our single lives are circled round  By an embracing sea; Are joined to all that has been, bound  To all that is to be: The past and future meet and cross, And in life's ocean is no loss. The music of the summer dawn,  The silence of the midnight sky, The stars, in azure deeps withdrawn,  Reveal a single mystery: And blent with these, the whisperings  Of spirit find each shy retreat, And link the soul with viewless things,  In union close and sweet. Failure itself may count as gain  In aspiration; paved with fire May be the path that leads from pain;  And unfulfilled desire May kindle that pure flame above Whose earthly name is love!