The Silken Tassel/To One Who Knows
TO ONE WHO KNOWS
If Thou knowest, then I know ;
If not Thou, then who on earth ?
Light has seen my outer glow,
Dark has felt my inner dearth.
And if Thou knowest, what more aught
Be brought to Thee by words that swarm ?
For words are shadows o f the thought,
That simply show a shapeless form.
The veils dividing Thee and me,
Like clouds, are lifted by Thy grace;
Take me in Love’s eternity.
And hold me in Thy firm embrace !
Human love is love and grief:
Love the plant and grief the flower;
In Thy heart I find relief.
Where Love and Joy grow in one bower.
Far, above, beyond, across,
I hold Thee ever in my thought
Thou art my gain in worldly loss.
Thou art my One in earthly nought.
For Thee alone my art did own
The pleasures of my darkest days ;
What i f T H IS die unread, unknown ?
’Tis crown’d with Thy love-lighted rays.
Then i f Thou knowest, well I wait
My drop to mingle in Thy Sea :
In Springs of Light,—or soon or late.
We will be o n e of Thee and Me !