GIVE ALL TO LOVE.
“Give all to love;
Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days,
Estate, good fame;
Plans, credit, and the muse;
Nothing refuse.
****
For it is a god,
Knows its own path,
And the outlets of the sky.
’Tis not for the mean;
It requireth courage stout,
Souls above doubt,
Valour unbending;
Such ’twill reward,
They shall return
More than they were
And ever ascending.
Yet hear me, yet
One word more thy heart behoved,
One pulse more of firm endeavour,
Keep thee to-day,
To-morrow, for ever
Free as an Arab
Of thy beloved.
Cling with life to the maid;
But when the surprise
Vague shadow of surmise
Flits across her bosom young
Of a joy apart from thee,
Free be she, fancy free,
Do not thou detain a hem,
Nor the palest rose she flung
From her summer diadem.
Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay,
Though her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive,
Heartily know,
When half-gods go
The Gods arrive.”
