love poetry

Not the unshriven wrong or the unpaid debt
Here in the crumbling years is my worst regret—
Rather the memory of one joy wasted:
Of a stupid, youthful righteousness that reckoned
Too bloodlessly, and once, when wild love beckoned,
Fled, leaving the perilous sweet sin untasted.

There's a heaven on earth—
A heaven that's mine—
In the gift of her heart
Whose love is divine.

There's a light in her eye,
That wins without art;
And there's grace in her step,
And joy in her heart.

When the heart blends with heart,
Confiding and true,
Then on earth there's a heaven,
With joys ever new.

While stars of Christmas shine,
Lighting the skies,
Let only loving looks,
Beam from our eyes.

While bells of Christmas ring,
Joyous and clear,
Speak only happy words,
All love and cheer.

Give only loving gifts,
And in love take;
Gladden the poor and sad
For love's dear sake.

Ah, love, my love is like a cry in the night,
A long, loud cry to the empty sky,
The cry of a man alone in the desert,
With hands uplifted, with parching lips,

Oh, rescue me, rescue me,
Thy form to mine arms,
The dew of thy lips to my mouth,
Dost thou hear me?--my call thro' the night?

Darling, I hear thee and answer,
Thy fountain am I,
All of the love of my soul will I bring to thee,
All of the pains of my being shall wring to thee,
Deep and forever the song of my loving shall sing to thee,

Dost ask me, why I send thee here,
This firstling of the infant year?
Dost ask me, what this primrose shews,
Bepearled thus with morning dews?—

I must whisper to thy ears,
The sweets of love are wash'd with tears.

This lovely native of the dale
Thou seest, how languid, pensive, pale:
Thou seest this bending stalk so weak,
That each way yielding doth not break?

I must tell thee, these reveal,
The doubts and fears that lovers feel.

Hope is like a harebell trembling from its birth,
Love is like a rose the joy of all the earth;
Faith is like a lily lifted high and white,
Love is like a lovely rose the world's delight;
Harebells and sweet lilies show a thornless growth,
But the rose with all its thorns excels them both.

But yet within life's ocean there are isles
Where for calm sunlit seasons thou mayest be
Safe from the cold arms of the sullen sea,
Press arms divine, and meet diviner smiles.
White hands shall beckon through dim forest-aisles,
And yet a fragrance not of flower or tree
Shall lure thee forth to roam eternally:
The known joy palls, the unknown joy beguiles.

In some fair island under sapphire skies
A woman waits, with queenly lips unkissed
And heart that throbs with unacknowledged flame.

Yet other thanks I owe
To him the guardian Power who guides our way
That every sense was clear when closed the day;
Clear almost as beneath the morning's glow

The eyes that in the far-off days looked down,
Ever with love, on flower and flower,
Growing in love, ne'er failed in power?
Death, having force to slay, could not discrown.

Still were the stars discerned
As clearly as when in years long dead,
Mother, upon thy bridal night they burned:
No tiniest star could veil its golden head.

Deep is the human heart:
When anguish comes, how true friends rally round;
If human love had power, then death discrowned
And forceless would depart.

But human love has power—to this extent,
That the mute frozen horror melts at last;
The pain no human strength can bear is past;
By whom were loving friends who saved me sent?

By whom if not by thee,
Mother, whose care still active from above
Incarnate once is unincarnate love
And perfect ever-present sympathy.

Old enmities give way

And yet I seem to hear the dead sweet voice
Saying, “Blame not overmuch yourselves, my son!
God watched—no evil is done;
Be thou not sad—rejoice!

“Even if the door of life was left ajar
Not through that door came death alone,
Nay, Love came with him,—Love who can atone
For all mistakes and sins in every star.”