Love’s Expression

If I say “I love thee well,
     Bearing all the daity phrases
Clear & tuneful as a bell—
     Carved alabaster bases
Which the cunning Poets wrowroughtngh
For their nectar-flowing thought,
Can I bring thee any more
Than thy heart knew well before?—
Than the first glance of mine eye, 
Flashed into thee silently.
When adown the depths of thine,
Oer thy spirit crystalline
It hung tranced & movingless
Seemed sad for very bliss?
Can a song with smoothest rhyme
Fow with thoughts of softer chime?

Will it tell thee any tale
     Sweeter than the untaught speaking
Of the mute cheek's red and pale,—
     Love's own sunrise color streaking
Dun clouds of my spirit's earth, 
Heralds of her rosy birth,—
When thy coming was the Day
Which shot bloom-light through my clay,
As the red shines through the pearl
When a lily-handed Girl
Sees her fingers, by the sun, 
Turned to amber every one,
Blushing with the consciousness
Of his warm, enamored kiss;
So the sunrise of thy soul
Through my cheeks in blushes stole.

But a thousand, thousand-fold
     Is the speech of God, the Lover;
Song and dance and fluid gold, 
     Flowers below, and planets over,
Rill, and bird, and forest-hum, 
And the blue sky, blank and dumb, 
Life, upgrowth, and seeming death—
Thoughts at which we hold our breath, 
Beauties that for their excess 
Thrill our hearts to helplessness, 
As a bee may load his thighs 
Till for wealth he cannot rise-
All around, below, above,
Are the language of His love; 
Breathes in all we hear and see, 
God's sublime tautology.

Then indeed, I will not stint
     Eye, or lip, or tongue’s confessing,
Tuneful hymn, or glance’s hint
     Or the twined arms’ mute caressing.
Eyes their tell-tale lids shall lift,
Heart’s-delight glow on the cheek,
With what pen nor tongue can speak,
And with these the brain[?] shall glean
Flowers of speech from pastures green
Twining wreaths around our Loves,—
White and rosy-nested Doves,
Gifted with a power to sing
Lark-like in that magic ring—
Aye, my Love-tale shall be thus,
Many-tongued, as God’s to us.