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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

Love

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

Totus est Inermis Idem …

NO show of bolts and bars

Can keep the foeman out,

Or ’scape his secret mine

Who enter’d with the doubt

That drew the line.

No warder at the gate

Can let the friendly in;

But, like the sun, o’er all

He will the castle win,

And shine along the wall.

Implacable is Love—

Foes may be bought or teased

From their hostile intent,

But he goes unappeased

Who is on kindness bent.