Whym Chow: Flame of Love :: :: University of Virginia Library

Along a hill, among the hills,
Thou hast burnt over at my side
In air of seraph-flight that fills
To amplitude the valleys wide—
We pace on in liberty.
Thou art dead, who might not be
On these living uplands free,
Nor thy sturdy trot unbound
On this elemental ground:
But fast in leash thou didst abide.

Oh, of thy bond, Whym Chow, it came,
That into thee a soul was breathed;
And as a brazier holds a flame
Close of rare incense in it sheathed,
Thou wert held in capture fraught
With sweet sacrifice—thy thought
Never from our presence sought;
And thy love, in servitude
To thy loved one's being, rued
No loss that sealed thee with her name.

For all that is created bears
A limit scarcely to be borne,
Till out of it, though unawares,
A Spirit of new life is drawn:
So thy love's unfettered soul
Deathless through thy body stole,

Levying on thy days its toll
Of subjection—So to-day
Dead, thou takest living way,
And with my soul its freedom shares.