CII.
For Love, without her son, is a weak fool,
The faltering treble of a school-girl’s thought;
She whimpers, daunted, for ’tis hot or cool,
Or that’s there less, or more, than what she sought;
Commutual bliss lives only when they join,
And, hand in hand, pace o’er the conquered lands;
One bides the occasion, stamps the current coin;
The other’s power sows blessings o’er the strands:
She is more weak, more lovely, and more mild;
And he more beautiful, more strong, more calm;
Earth almost blossomed, when just now she smiled;
But earth cried out for joy, feeling his balm:
Divorced, one’s weakness lends the other fuel;
The more love yields, the more is action cruel.
CIII.
But, borrowing aid of Nature, to upsoar,
And steer thy purpose, resolution-winged;
This, is to leave these suburbs for the shore,
Where Nature’s movements slide, noiselessly hinged;
The passive puppet, cooped in his poor self,
Foregoes the scope of his divinity;
Thinking he wields a little power or pelf,
And knows not, sees not, power’s sublimity:
Even, while living, such shall tamely die,
And, uncomplaining, reap their perished seeds:
But, holier, thou, stifle another’s sigh,
And steal whose sorrow disappoints his deeds:
Then shall the dark confirm the intenser light;
And the world’s woe but make the world more bright.
CIV.
Who hath not bless’d the woods, that gave the breeze,
Freshening the city from his summer cheek?
Who hath not trembled to the quivering leaves,
Wondering such music thus was left to seek?
And thus, the hubbub left of wandering words,
My steed returns along the well-known road;
He knows his home by music of no birds,
Though by instinct of as harmonious load;
For, there, thy voice laughs fantasies away,
Showing the earnest of my fancy’s dream;
And, there, thy love has traced the lively way,
Whose signs, but thought on, indistinctly gleam:
I turn to thee, and soon forget all fears;
Swerves not my skiff, when such strong pilot steers.