LXVII. LOVE UNDREAMED-OF
If I love thee with love surpassing and excelling
All love that song or strange high history hath for telling,
All love-dreams of the past,
Then wilt not thou love me with love that never dreamer
In noblest moments dreamed,—love softer and supremer?
Will thy love-look not seek mine at the last?
If I can bring thee love outweighing and exceeding
The common love of man, wilt thou not hear its pleading
With tenderer than the heart
Of women who are crowned with love that lasts no longer
Than bloom of summer rose? If thus my soul be stronger
Than souls of most, wilt thou not do thy part?
If I bestow on thee a love that knows no ending,
Wilt thou be ever mine, in sweetest purest blending
Of spirit and of mind?
—That so our souls may teach the world before we quit it
The deathless lore of love, and write, if fate permit it,
Our story in the heart-depths of mankind.
I long to give thee, love, now that the world is aging,
The love that all its growth and life have been presaging:
The love that Dante knew.
Then give thou unto me a heart divinely moulded;
Sweeter than ever yet the touch of love unfolded;
New to my gaze, and in the world's sight new.
