To give or keep, to live and learn and be
All that not harms distinctive womanhood.”
And then, in the following beautiful passage, which for majesty of thought and delicacy of feeling can scarcely be matched in the whole realm of poetry, the poet describes the relations of man’s nature to woman’s and paints the ideal of a perfect marriage:
“For woman is not undevelopt man,
But diverse: could we make her as the man,
Sweet Love were slain: his dearest bond is this,
Not like to like, but like in difference.
Yet in the long years liker must they grow;
The man be more of woman, she of man;
He gain in sweetness and in moral height,