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Poems Real and Ideal

By George Barlow

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 XXI. 
SONNET XXI. “AND YET WE STRETCH OUR ARMS OUT TO THE HUMAN.”
  
  
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SONNET XXI. “AND YET WE STRETCH OUR ARMS OUT TO THE HUMAN.”

And yet we seek the human.—When we tire
Of God's great loving limitless embrace
And of the features of the endless face,—
Yea, when we weary of his passion-fire
And of his stern implacable desire,
We turn with longing to some grassy place
On earth, and 'mid the lilies for a space
We rest, and listen to the earth's old lyre.
The human love is very very sweet,
And there are seasons when the highest rhyme
Of kingliest stars would strike as less sublime
Than love-songs sung where the brown waters meet
On earth, or where rose-tendrils cling and climb.—
When God fails, listen for Love's human feet.