Love is worth having: this we know and preach.
Though heartless, mindless, soulless, Nature be,
And all the voices of her wild white sea
Have nought of loving helpful God to teach;
Though, piercing far beyond the stars, we reach
More stars,—but no high heaven of sacred glee;
Though summer laughing in the dense green tree
Hath but a mocking restless helpless speech;
Though this be so, yet love is passing fair
And more than ever do we seek her face,
And seek her breast, and nestle in her hair,
And dream of her delight in every place.

The house was still, our lamp burned bright,
We two and none else nigh.
The lamp alone might know our troth
And night's sweet mystery.

He vowed to love me true: I vowed
Never to part again,
Thou, sacred Night, and thou, dear Lamp,
Were for us witness twain.

But now he says our vows are dead,
Swept by the changing tide;
This eve will see my own false love
Sleep by another's side.

My eyes with floods of tears o'erflow,
My bosom heaves with constant woe;
Those eyes which thy unkindness swells,
That bosom where thy image dwells!
How could I hope so weak a flame
Could ever warm that matchless dame,
When none Elysium must behold
Without a radiant bough of gold?
'Tis her's in spheres to shine;
At distance to admire is mine;
Doom'd like th' enamour'd youth to groan
For a new goddess form'd of stone.
While thus I spoke, Love's gentle pow'r
Descended from th' ethereal bow'r;
A quiver at his shoulder hung,

In the kingly palace garden
Blooms a roselet fair and bright,
See, it has been sprinkled over
With repeated dews of night.

I N the kingly palace garden,
See the bud that rose-tree bears;
Twice—my lovely maid—at even,
Twice—hath bath'd it with her tears.

I N the kingly palace garden,
There we poured our last adieu!
And behind that lovely rose-tree,
Gave our parting kisses too.

Whom raging dog doth bite,
Hee doth in water still
That Cerberus' image see:
Loue mad, perhaps, when he my heart did smite,
More to dissemble ill,
Transform'd himselfe in thee,
For euer since thou present art to mee:
No spring there is, no floud, nor other place,
Where I, alas! not see thy heauenly face.

“Foolish Love! begone,” said I,
“Vain are thy attempts on me;
“Thy soft allurements I defy:
“Women, those fair dissemblers, fly;
“My heart was never made for thee.”

Love heard, and straight prepar'd a dart:
“Mira, revenge my cause,” faïd he.
Too sure 't was shot; I feel the smart,
It rends my brain, and tears my heart.
O Love! my conqu'ror, pity me.

To love is to be doom'd on earth to feel
What after death the tortur'd meet in hell.
The vulture dipping in Prometheus' side
His bloody beak, with his torn liver dy'd,
Is love. The stone that labours up the hill,
Mocking the lab'rer's toil, returning still,
Is love. Those streams where Tantalus is curst
To sit, and never drink, with endless thirst;
Those loaden boughs that with their burthen bend
To court his taste, and yet escape his hand;
All this is love, that to dissembled joys
Invites vain men, with real grief destroys.

What is the world compared to you,—
To having you, holding you, finding you true?
Is there a heart-gain half as sweet
As when you kneel at my feet
Loving me, telling me you are mine?
Is there a victory more divine
Than that I am loved,—and loved too well?
Dearest, the aims of those who dwell
In the empty world are so mean compared
With our Hope of loving,—of having shared
This long life together, and then to be
One in a timeless Eternity …

They said that Love was blind,—alackaday!—
Then strung the lute with heartstrings soft with tears;
And Love was blind, but thoughtless man and maid
Forgot that Love had ears.

They said that Love was blind and let him play
With apple blossoms, sifted through the years;
And now each kindred petal in the spring
Breathes what Love hears.

I will hide my soul and its mighty love
In the bosom of this rose,
And its dispensing breath will take
My love where'er it goes.

And perhaps she'll pluck this very rose,
And quick as blushes start,
Will breathe my hidden secret in
Her unsuspecting heart.

And there I will live in her embrace
And the realm of sweetness there,
Enamored with an ecstasy
Of bliss beyond compare.