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To Castara, The Reward of Innocent Love

We saw and woo'd each other's eyes,
My soul contracted then with thine,
And both burnt in one sacrifice
By which our marriage grew divine.

Let wilder youths, whose soul is sense,
Profane the temple of delight,
And purchase endless penitence
With the stolen pleasure of one night.

Time's ever ours, while we despise
The sensual idol of our clay,
For though the sun do set and rise
We joy one everlasting day.

Whose light no jealous clouds obscure,
While each of us shines innocent.
The troubled stream is still impure:

Of Love Gift

Who gives a gift to bind a friend thereby,
Doth set or put his gift to usury:
And he that gives a gift that is not free,
Give where he list, so that he give not me.
For bought and sold is friendship strange,
Who lives by selling, lives by change;
And he, that loves to change his friend,
Will turn to nothing in the end.

Love's Justification

Yes! hope may with my strong desire keep pace,
And I be undeluded, unbetrayed;
For if of our affections none finds grace
In sight of Heaven, then, wherefore hath God made
The world which we inhabit? Better plea
Love cannot have, than that in loving thee
Glory to that eternal Peace is paid,
Who such divinity to thee imparts
As hallows and makes pure all gentle hearts.

His hope is treacherous only whose love dies
With beauty, which is varying every hour;
But, in chaste hearts uninfluenced by the power

O Treasure-house of mercy, Thou art the one true friend

O Treasure-house of mercy, Thou art the one true friend.
O Lord, who else but thou can love for loving's sake alone.
Looking for no reward Thou fillest lives with every good.
Thou givest life and protection by night and day: Thou teachest the manners and ways of happiness.
In father, mother, and the friends of this world, what help is there in them?
Even my own body, when strength fails me, is powerless to aid.
Thou in death and life art the sole companion. Thy Form is love and holiness.
Thou art merciful, the giver of comfort. The Vedas sing and make known Thy praise.

Morning Serenade

A WAKE ! the dawn is on the hills!
—Behold, at her cool throat a rose,
—Blue-eyed and beautiful she goes,
Leaving her steps in daffodils.—
Awake! arise! and let me see
—Thine eyes, whose deeps epitomize
All dawns that were or are to be,
—O love, all Heaven in thine eyes!—
Awake! arise! come down to me!

Behold! the dawn is up: behold!
—How all the birds around her float,
—Wild rills of music, note on note,
Spilling the air with mellow gold.—
Arise! awake! and, drawing near,
—Let me but hear thee and rejoice!

Love and Time

't is said—but whether true or not
Let bards declare who 've seen 'em—
That Love and Time have only got
One pair of wings between 'em.
In courtship's first delicious hour,
The boy full oft can spare 'em;
So, loitering in his lady's bower,
He lets the gray-beard wear 'em.
Then is Time's hour of play;
Oh, how he flies, flies away!

But short the moments, short as bright,
When he the wings can borrow;
If Time to-day has had his flight,
Love takes his turn to-morrow.
Ah! Time and Love, your change is then
The saddest and most trying,

Picking Lilies

Down in a meadow fresh and gay,
Picking lilies all the day;
Picking lilies both red and blue,
I little thought what love could do.

Where love is planted there it grows,
It buds and blossoms like any rose,
It has so sweet and a pleasant smell,
No flowers on earth can it excel.

There's thousands, thousands in a room,
My love she carries the brightest bloom;
Surely she is the chosen one,
I will have her and I will have none.

I saw a ship sailing on the sea,
Loaded as deep as she could be;
But not so deep as in love I am,

But

But if you have not met and kissed
Your lonely Love's Beloved One,
Your heart's a rosebud in a mist
That has not known the sun.

And though the world be glad and loud
With all the singing joy of June,
Your soul's a lily in a cloud
That has not seen the moon.