Classic Poem

It surely must be sweet
To be loved, sweetheart, as my soul loves thee?
It must make yet more blue the bluest sea,
More swift the summer's feet!
It must make every tender flower beside
The river thou dost seek
Smile almost, almost speak:
It must add radiance to the water wide.

It must make every day
More beautiful, my beauty, unto thee:
I have not lived for nothing if through me
Love doth his gifts convey.

It must make, surely, all a woman's soul
Expand and bud and bloom;
As the sun draws perfume
From every flower by his divine control.
To know that love is thine,
Love pure and passionate and all-supreme,—
This must make life to thee one sunny dream
And all the world divine.

If it is sweet to love, sweet it must be
To thee to be loved so,
And through all life to go
Guarded by love's invincibility.