Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Ralph Waldo Emerson. 18031882669. Give All to Love
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; | |
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. |