Give All To Love

Give all to love
Obey thy heart
Friends, kindred, days,
Estate, good-fame,
Plans, credit, and the Muse,-
Nothing refuse.

'Tis a brave master;
Let it have scope
Follow it utterly,
Hope beyond hope
High and more high
It dives into noon,
With wing unspent,
Untold intent
But it is a god,
Knows its own path,
And the outlets of the sky.
It was not for the mean
It requireth courage stout,
Souls above doubt,
Valor unbending
It will reward,
They shall return
More than they were,
And ever ascending.

Leave all for love
Yet, hear me, yet,
One word more thy heart behoved,
One pulse more of firm endeavor,-
Keep thee today,
To-morrow, forever,
Free as an Arab
Of thy beloved.
Cling with life to the maid
But when the surprise,
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,
Nor the palest rose she flung
From her summer diadem.

Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay,
Tho' her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive,
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive.