 | The Creed of My Heart and Other Poems |  |
62
THE DOOM OF LOVE
I
I have a dim, mysterious fear,Lest love at last should cease to be;
Lest love—this love—this love of mine,
This passion of my heart for thine,
Should fade far hence and disappear,
Lost in its own eternity.
II
O Love, what happens when a flame,A panting, glowing, quivering spire,
Leaps into life and soars on high,
Then faints and fails, content to die,
Drowned in the depths from which it came,
The white-hot fount of furnace fire?
III
Is this the doom of love, the prizeOf which he dreamed, for which he strove;
Is this the crown that he will wear,
The crown that in his worst despair
Still fired with hope his gazing eyes,—
To change at last to love of love?
63
IV
Clasped in that infinite embrace,Ravished beyond his dream of bliss,
Loosed from Fate's tyrannous control,
Wedded to love's own inmost soul,—
Will love forget the loved one's face,
Forget the thrill of love's sweet kiss?
V
Ah, no; but with unclouded sightHe'll see the beauty that of old
Haunted him in his dreams, and know
At last what spell enthralled him so,
And from what hidden springs of light
The loved one's waves of beauty rolled.
| The Creed of My Heart and Other Poems | |