545
Or linger, where the pebble-paven shore,
Under the quick, faint kisses of the sea
Trembles and sparkles as with ecstasy,—­
Possessing and possessed by all that is
Within that calm circumference of bliss, 550
And by each other, till to love and live
Be one:—­or, at the noontide hour, arrive
Where some old cavern hoar seems yet to keep
The moonlight of the expired night asleep,
Through which the awakened day can never peep; 555
A veil for our seclusion, close as night’s,
Where secure sleep may kill thine innocent lights: 
Sleep, the fresh dew of languid love, the rain
Whose drops quench kisses till they burn again. 
And we will talk, until thought’s melody 560
Become too sweet for utterance, and it die
In words, to live again in looks, which dart
With thrilling tone into the voiceless heart,
Harmonizing silence without a sound. 
Our breath shall intermix, our bosoms bound, 565
And our veins beat together; and our lips
With other eloquence than words, eclipse
The soul that burns between them, and the wells
Which boil under our being’s inmost cells,
The fountains of our deepest life, shall be 570
Confused in Passion’s golden purity,
As mountain-springs under the morning sun. 
We shall become the same, we shall be one
Spirit within two frames, oh! wherefore two? 
One passion in twin-hearts, which grows and grew, 575
Till like two meteors of expanding flame,
Those spheres instinct with it become the same,
Touch, mingle, are transfigured; ever still
Burning, yet ever inconsumable: 
In one another’s substance finding food, 580
Like flames too pure and light and unimbued
To nourish their bright lives with baser prey,
Which point to Heaven and cannot pass away: 
One hope within two wills, one will beneath
Two overshadowing minds, one life, one death, 585
One Heaven, one Hell, one immortality,
And one annihilation.  Woe is me! 
The winged words on which my soul would pierce
Into the height of Love’s rare Universe,
Are chains of lead around its flight of fire—­ 590
I pant, I sink, I tremble, I expire!

...

Weak Verses, go, kneel at your Sovereign’s feet,
And say:—­’We are the masters of thy slave;
What wouldest thou with us and ours and thine?’
Then call your sisters from Oblivion’s cave, 595
All singing loud:  ’Love’s very pain is sweet,
But its reward is in the world divine
Which, if not here, it builds beyond the grave.’ 
So shall ye live when I am there.  Then haste
Over the hearts of men, until ye meet 600
Marina, Vanna, Primus, and the rest,
And bid them love each other and be blessed: 
And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves,
And come and be my guest,—­for I am Love’s.