Excerpts

XI
And therefore if to love can be desert,
I am not all unworthy. 
............


XIV
............
Were most impossible failure, if I strove
To fail so. But I look on thee--on thee--
Beholding, besides love, the end of love,
Hearing oblivion beyond memory;
As one who sits and gazes from above,
Over the rivers to the bitter sea. 


XVI 

And yet, because thou overcomest so, 
Because thou art more noble and like a king, 
Thou canst prevail against my fears and fling 
Thy purple round me, till my heart shall grow 
Too close against thine heart henceforth to know 
How it shook when alone. Why, conquering 
May prove as lordly and complete a thing 
In lifting upward, as in crushing low! 
And as a vanquished soldier yields his sword 
To one who lifts him from the bloody earth, 
Even so, Beloved, I at last record, 
Here ends my strife. If thou invite me forth, 
I rise above abasement at the word. 
Make thy love larger to enlarge my worth.