Spirit Love

  I will love thee as the Flowers love,

     That in the summer weather,

  Each standing in its own place

     Lean rosy lips together,

  And pour their sweet confession

     Through a petal's bended palm,

  With a breath that only deepens

     The azure-lidded calm

  Of the heavens bending o'er them,

  And the Blue Bells hung before them,

All whose odor in the silence is a psalm.

 

  I will love thee as the Dews love,

     In chambers of a Lily,

  Hung orb-like and unmeeting,-

     With their flashes blending stilly,-

  By the white shield of the petals

     Held a little way apart,

  While all the air is sweeter

     For the yearning of each heart,-

  That yet keep clear and crystal,

  Their globéd spheres celestial,

While to and fro their glimmers ever dart.

 

  I will love thee as the Stars love,

     In sanctity enfolden,

  That tune in constellations

     Their harps divine and golden,

  Across the heavens greeting

     Their sisters from afar-

  The Pleiades to Mazzaroth,

     Star answering to star;

  With a love as high and holy

  And apart from all the lowly-

Swaying to thee like the planets without jar.

 

  I will love thee as the Spirits love,

     Who, free of Earth and Heaven,

  Wreathe white and pale-blue flowers

     For the brows of the Forgiven,

  And are dear to one another

     For the blessings they bestow

  On the weary and the wasted

     In our wilderness of wo;

  By thy good name with the Angels,

     And thy human heart's Evangels,

Shall my love from holy silence to thee go.