If I leave all for thee, wilt thou exchange

When for earth too fancy-looseAnd too low for Heaven!Hush! I talk my dream aloud—I build it bright to see,—I build it on the moonlit cloud,To which I looked with thee.Cloud-walls of the morning’s grey,Faced with amber column,—Crowned with crimson cupolaFrom a sunset solemn!May mists, for the casements, fetch,Pale and glimmering;With a sunbeam hid in each,And…

For thine and thee, an image only soFormed of the sand, and fit to shift and break.It is that distant years which did not takeThy sovranty, recoiling with a blow,Have forced my swimming brain to undergoTheir doubt and dread, and blindly to forsakeThy purity of likeness and distortThy worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit:As if…

Wouldst thou miss any life in losing mine?And would the sun for thee more coldly shineBecause of grave-damps falling round my head?I marvelled, my Beloved, when I readThy thought so in the letter. I am thine—But . . . so much to thee? Can I pour thy wineWhile my hands tremble ? Then my soul,…

Until the lengthening wings break into fireAt either curvèd point,–what bitter wrongCan the earth do to us, that we should not longBe here contented? Think. In mounting higher,The angels would press on us and aspireTo drop some golden orb of perfect songInto our deep, dear silence. Let us stayRather on earth, Belovèd,–where the unfitContrarious moods…

Who each one in a gracious hand appearsTo bear a gift for mortals, old or young:And, as I mused it in his antique tongue,I saw, in gradual vision through my tears,The sweet, sad years, the melancholy years,Those of my own life, who by turns had flungA shadow across me. Straightway I was ‘ware,So weeping, how…

Too calm and sad a face in front of thine;For we two look two ways, and cannot shineWith the same sunlight on our brow and hair.On me thou lookest with no doubting care,As on a bee shut in a crystalline;Since sorrow hath shut me safe in love’s divine,And to spread wing and fly in the…

To slacken all those bonds which seemed too soonAnd quickly tied to make a lasting troth.Quick-loving hearts, I thought, may quickly loathe;And, looking on myself, I seemed not oneFor such man’s love !–more like an out-of-tuneWorn viol, a good singer would be wrothTo spoil his song with, and which, snatched in haste,Is laid down at…

In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,And let us hear no sound of human strifeAfter the click of the shutting. Life to life –I lean upon thee, Dear, without alarm,And feel as safe as guarded by a charmAgainst the stab of worldlings, who if rifeAre weak to injure. Very whitely stillThe lilies…

Move still, oh, still, beside me, as they stoleBetwixt me and the dreadful outer brinkOf obvious death, where I, who thought to sink,Was caught up into love, and taught the wholeOf life in a new rhythm. The cup of doleGod gave for baptism, I am fain to drink,And praise its sweetness, Sweet, with thee anear.The…

Indeed beyond the zenith and the slopeOf yon gray blank of sky, we might grow faintTo muse upon eternity’s constraintRound our aspirant souls; but since the scopeMust widen early, is it well to droop,For a few days consumed in loss and taint ?O pusillanimous Heart, be comfortedAnd, like a cheerful traveller, take the roadSinging beside…

The sun, a little cloud can pallWith darkness yonder?The cloud, a little wind can moveWhere’er it listeth?The wind, a little leaf above,Though sere, resisteth?What time that yellow leaf was green,My days were gladder;But now, whatever Spring may mean,I must grow sadder.Ah me! a leaf with sighs can wringMy lips asunder –Then is mine heart the…

About thee, as wild vines, about a tree,Put out broad leaves, and soon there ‘s nought to seeExcept the straggling green which hides the wood.Yet, O my palm-tree, be it understoodI will not have my thoughts instead of theeWho art dearer, better! Rather, instantlyRenew thy presence; as a strong tree should,Rustle thy boughs and set…

And would the sun for thee more coldly shineBecause of grave-damps falling round my head ?I marvelled, my Beloved, when I readThy thought so in the letter. I am thine–But . . . so much to thee ? Can I pour thy wineWhile my hands tremble ? Then my soul, insteadOf dreams of death, resumes…

Lo, the vain promise ! is the same, the same,Perplexed and ruffled by life’s strategy ?When called before, I told how hastilyI dropped my flowers or brake off from a game,To run and answer with the smile that cameAt play last moment, and went on with meThrough my obedience. When I answer now,I drop a…

Our ministering two angels look surpriseOn one another, as they strike athwartTheir wings in passing. Thou, bethink thee, artA guest for queens to social pageantries,With gages from a hundred brighter eyesThan tears even can make mine, to play thy partOf chief musician. What hast thou to doWith looking from the lattice-lights at me,A poor, tired,…

As these you see, and trembling knees that failTo bear the burden of a heavy heart,–This weary minstrel-life that once was girtTo climb Aornus, and can scarce availTo pipe now ‘gainst the valley nightingaleA melancholy music,–why advertTo these things? O Belovèd, it is plainI am not of thy worth nor for thy place!And yet, because…

That still grew gentler till its pulse was lessFor life than pity,–I should yet be slowTo bring my own heart nakedly belowThe palm of such a friend, that he should pressMotive, condition, means, appliances,My false ideal joy and fickle woe,Out full to light and knowledge; I should fearSome plait between the brows, some rougher chimeIn…

And found them gentle mates, nor thought to knowA sweefer music than they played to me.But soon their trailing purple was not freeOf this world’s dust, their lutes did silent grow,And I myself grew faint and blind belowTheir vanishing eyes. Then THOU didst come–to be,Beloved, what they seemed. Their shining fronts,Their songs, their splendors (better,…