Totus est Inermis Idem...
No show of bolts and bars
Can keep the foeman out,
Or 'scape his secret mine
Who enter'd with the doubt
That drew the line.
No warder at the gate
Can let the friendly in;
But, like the sun, o'er all
He will the castle win,
And shine along the wall.
Implacable is Love—
Foes may be bought or teased
From their hostile intent,
But he goes unappeased
Who is on kindness bent.
—Henry David Thoreau
Trust Thou Thy Love
Trust thou thy Love: if she be proud, is she not sweet?
Trust thou thy Love: if she be mute, is she not pure?
Lay thou thy soul full in her hands, low at her feet;
Fail, Sun and Breath!—yet, for thy peace, She shall endure.
—John Ruskin
Spiritual Love
What care I tho' beauty fading
Die ere Time can turn his glass?
What tho' locks the Graces braiding
Perish like the summer grass?
Tho' thy charms should all decay,
Think not my affections may!
For thy charms—tho' bright as morning—
Captured not my idle heart;
Love so grounded ends in scorning,
Lacks the barb to hold the dart.
My devotion more secure
Woos thy spirit high and pure.
—William Caldwell Roscoe