There placed, of pleasant quietude. 
For right amidst there was a court,
Where always musked silences
Listened to water and to trees;
And herbage of all fragrant sort,—­
Lavender, lad’s-love, rosemary,
Basil, tansy, centaury,—­
Was the grass of that orchard, hid
Love’s amazements all amid. 
Jarring the air with rumour cool,
Small fountains played into a pool
With sound as soft as the barley’s hiss
When its beard just sprouting is;
Whence a young stream, that trod on moss,
Prettily rimpled the court across. 
And in the pool’s clear idleness,
Moving like dreams through happiness,
Shoals of small bright fishes were;
In and out weed-thickets bent
Perch and carp, and sauntering went
With mounching jaws and eyes a-stare;
Or on a lotus leaf would crawl,
A brinded loach to bask and sprawl,
Tasting the warm sun ere it dipt
Into the water; but quick as fear
Back his shining brown head slipt
To crouch on the gravel of his lair,
Where the cooled sunbeams broke in wrack,
Spilt shatter’d gold about his back. 
  So within that green-veiled air,
Within that white-walled quiet, where
Innocent water thought aloud,—­
Childish prattle that must make
The wise sunlight with laughter shake
On the leafage overbowed,—­
Often the King and his love-lass
Let the delicious hours pass. 
All the outer world could see
Graved and sawn amazingly
Their love’s delighted riotise,
Fixt in marble for all men’s eyes;
But only these twain could abide
In the cool peace that withinside
Thrilling desire and passion dwelt;
They only knew the still meaning spelt
By Love’s flaming script, which is
God’s word written in ecstasies.

And where is now that palace gone,
All the magical skill’d stone,
All the dreaming towers wrought
By Love as if no more than thought
The unresisting marble was? 
How could such a wonder pass? 
Ah, it was but built in vain
Against the stupid horns of Rome,
That pusht down into the common loam
The loveliness that shone in Spain. 
But we have raised it up again! 
A loftier palace, fairer far,
Is ours, and one that fears no war. 
Safe in marvellous walls we are;
Wondering sense like builded fires,
High amazement of desires,
Delight and certainty of love,
Closing around, roofing above
Our unapproacht and perfect hour
Within the splendours of love’s power.

The “Hymn to Love” is reprinted by permission from “The Vineyard."