GIVE all to love; |
|
Obey thy heart; |
|
Friends, kindred, days, |
|
Estate, good fame, |
|
Plans, credit, and the Muse— |
5 |
Nothing refuse. |
|
|
‘Tis a brave master; |
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Let it have scope: |
|
Follow it utterly, |
|
Hope beyond hope: |
10 |
High and more high |
|
It dives into noon, |
|
With wing unspent, |
|
Untold intent; |
|
But it is a god, |
15 |
Knows its own path, |
|
And the outlets of the sky. |
|
|
It was never for the mean; |
|
It requireth courage stout, |
|
Souls above doubt, |
20 |
Valour unbending: |
|
Such ’twill reward;— |
|
They shall return |
|
More than they were, |
|
And ever ascending. |
25 |
|
Leave all for love; |
|
Yet, hear me, yet, |
|
One word more thy heart behoved, |
|
One pulse more of firm endeavour— |
|
Keep thee to-day, |
30 |
To-morrow, for ever, |
|
Free as an Arab |
|
Of thy beloved. |
|
|
Cling with life to the maid; |
|
But when the surprise, |
35 |
First vague shadow of surmise, |
|
Flits across her bosom young, |
|
Of a joy apart from thee, |
|
Free be she, fancy-free; |
|
Nor thou detain her vesture’s hem, |
40 |
Nor the palest rose she flung |
|
From her summer diadem. |
|
|
Though thou loved her as thyself, |
|
As a self of purer clay; |
|
Though her parting dims the day, |
45 |
Stealing grace from all alive; |
|
Heartily know, |
|
When half-gods go |
|
The gods arrive. |