Page:Home; or, The unlost paradise (IA homeorunlostpara00palm).pdf/99

Is freedom then abjured—for bonds exchanged?
Arthur and Edith, each once free as air,
In thought, word, feeling, purpose, aim, and end—
Sold each a royal birthright when they sware
Henceforth to have one name, one life, one lot?
Or hideth seeming loss some priceless gain?
By somewhat yielded is it Heaven's great law
That the young heart, with conscious need disturbed,
Must find its fulness, what it restless craved?
Bound! Bound! Ah! thou that doubting askest—know
That unto thee love's mystery as yet
Is all unopened; thou art but a child!
Thou hast not learned how, in the blissful sphere
Where love triumphant reigns, a soul gains most
When most it loses; that when giving all
It takes all and is blest. Two hearts made one
In mystic unity of trustful love,
Constraint know not, nor liberty e'er lack;
With full consenting wills as one they choose;
Or differing aught, for this alone contend,