“Immortal Love”

IMMORTAL love, too high for my possessing,—

Yet, lower than thee, where shall I find repose?

Long in my youth I sang the morning rose,

By earthly things the heavenly pattern guessing!

Long fared I on, beauty and love caressing,

And finding in my heart a place for those

Eternal fugitives; the golden close

Of evening folds me, still their sweetness blessing.

Oh happy we, the first-born heirs of nature,

For whom the Heavenly Sun delays his light!

He by the sweets of every mortal creature

Tempers eternal beauty to our sight;

And by the glow upon love’s earthly feature

Maketh the path of our departure bright.