love subsists
  All lasting grandeur, by pervading love;
  That gone, we are as dust.—­Behold the fields 170
  In balmy spring-time full of rising flowers
  And joyous creatures; see that pair, the lamb
  And the lamb’s mother, and their tender ways
  Shall touch thee to the heart; thou callest this love,
  And not inaptly so, for love it is, 175
  Far as it carries thee.  In some green bower
  Rest, and be not alone, but have thou there
  The One who is thy choice of all the world: 
  There linger, listening, gazing, with delight
  Impassioned, but delight how pitiable! 180
  Unless this love by a still higher love
  Be hallowed, love that breathes not without awe;
  Love that adores, but on the knees of prayer,
  By heaven inspired; that frees from chains the soul,
  Lifted, in union with the purest, best, 185
  Of earth-born passions, on the wings of praise
  Bearing a tribute to the Almighty’s Throne.

    This spiritual Love acts not nor can exist
  Without Imagination, which, in truth,
  Is but another name for absolute power 190
  And clearest insight, amplitude of mind,
  And Reason in her most exalted mood. 
  This faculty hath been the feeding source
  Of our long labour:  we have traced the stream
  From the blind cavern whence is faintly heard 195
  Its natal murmur; followed it to light
  And open day; accompanied its course
  Among the ways of Nature, for a time
  Lost sight of it bewildered and engulphed: 
  Then given it greeting as it rose once more 200
  In strength, reflecting from its placid breast
  The works of man and face of human life;
  And lastly, from its progress have we drawn
  Faith in life endless, the sustaining thought
  Of human Being, Eternity, and God. 205

    Imagination having been our theme,
  So also hath that intellectual Love,
  For they are each in each, and cannot stand
  Dividually.—­Here must thou be, O Man! 
  Power to thyself; no Helper hast thou here; 210
  Here keepest thou in singleness thy state: 
  No other can divide with thee this work: 
  No secondary hand can intervene
  To fashion this ability; ’tis thine,
  The prime and vital principle is thine 215
  In the recesses of thy nature, far
  From any reach of outward fellowship,
  Else is not thine at all.  But joy to him,
  Oh, joy to him who here hath sown, hath laid
  Here, the foundation of his future years! 220
  For all that friendship, all that love can do,
  All that a darling countenance can look
  Or dear voice utter, to complete the man,