University of Virginia Library


5

LOVE'S OFFERING

I offer this to God,—and then to thee,—
Then to the world: that God and man may know
Love's sweetness and love's blessing and love's woe
As each in turn possessed and vanquished me.
Then, lastly, back I come—as from the sea
To some fair valley with gold flowers aglow;
Longing to find thee,—where blue waters flow,
And where the bird's song mixes with the bee.
Back from the ocean of God's heart, and back
From the wild tempest-wingéd tides of things,
I turn to thee, as towards some flowerlit track
Lined with great oaks whose very leafage sings:
And then again God's changeless heart I see,
Soft now and blossomlike, revealed in thee.
June 13, 1883.