"Give All To Love"
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)



Give all to love
Obey thy heart
Friends, kindred, days
Estate, good-fame
Plans, credit, and the Muse -
Nothing refuse

Tis a brave master
Let it have scope
Follow it utterly
Hope beyond hope
High and more high
It dives into noon
With wing unspent
Untold intent
But it is a god
Knows its own path
And the outlets of the sky

It was not for the man
It requireth courage stout
Souls above doubt
Valor unbending
Such 'twill reward -
They shall return
More than they were
And ever ascending

Leave all for love
Yet, hear me, yet
One word more than thy heart behoved
One pulse more of firm endeavor -
Keep thee today
Tomorrow, forever
Free as an Arab
Of thy beloved

Cling with life to the maid
But when the surprise
First vague shadow of surmise
Flits across her bosom young
Of a joy apart from thee
Free be she, fancy-free
Nor thou detain her vesture's hem
Nor the palest rose she flung
From her summer diadem

Though thou lived her as thyself
As a self our purer clay
Though her parting dims the day
Stealing grace from all alive
Heartily know
When half-gods go
The gods arrive



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11/30/14 10:45