Classic Poem

Lo if a man, magnanimous and tender,
Lo if a woman, desperate and true,
Make the irrevocable sweet surrender,
Show to each other what the Lord can do, —

Each, as I know, a helping and a healing,
Each to the other strangely a surprise,
Heart to the heart its mystery revealing,
Soul to the soul in melancholy eyes, —

Where wilt thou find a riving or a rending
Able to sever them in twain again?
God hath begun, and God's shall be the ending,
Safe in His bosom and aloof from men.

Her thou mayest separate but shalt not sunder,
Tho' thou distress her for a little while; —
Rapt in a worship, ravished in a wonder,
Stayed on the stedfast promise of a smile,

Scarcely she knoweth if his arms have found her —
Waves of his breath make tremulous the air —
Or if the thrill within her and around her
Be but the distant echo of his prayer.

Nay, and much more; for love in his demanding
Will not be bound in limits of our breath,
Calls her to follow where she sees him standing
Fairer and stronger for the plunge of death; —

Waketh a vision and a voice within her
Sweeter than dreams and clearer than complaint,
" Is it a man thou lovest, and a sinner?
No! but a soul, a woman, and a saint! "

Well, — if to her such prophecy be given,
Strong to illuminate when sight is dim,
Then tho' my Lord be holy in the heaven
How should the heavens sunder me from Him?

She and her love, — how dimly has she seen him
Dark in a dream and windy in a wraith!
I and my Lord, — between me and between Him
Rises the lucent ladder of my faith.

Ay, and thereon, descending and ascending,
Suns at my side and starry in the air,
Angels, His ministers, their tasks are blending,
Bear me the blessing, render Him the prayer.