LOVE is the centre and circumference;
The cause and aim of all things- 'tis the key
To joy and sorrow, and the recompense
For all the ills that have been, or may be.
Love is as bitter as the dregs of sin,
As sweet as clover-honey in its cell; Love is the password whereby souls get in
To Heaven -the gate that leads, sometimes, to Hell.
Love is the crown that glorifies; the curse
That brands and burdens; it is life and death.
It is the great law of the universe;
And nothing can exist without its breath.
Love is the impulse which directs the world,
And all things know it and obey its power.
Man, in the maelstrom of his passions whirled;
The bee that takes the pollen to the flower;
The earth, uplifting her bare, pulsing breast
To fervent kisses of the amorous sun;-
Each but obeys creative Love's behest,
Which everywhere instinctively is done.
Love is the only thing that pays for birth,
Or makes death welcome. Oh, dear God above This beautiful but sad, perplexing earth, Pity the hearts that know-or know not-Love. ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. -America, June 23, 1888.
LOVE AND CHANGE.
'TIS said the heart in absence fonder grows,
Increasing still in tenderness and truth;
Till it is welded close to other hearts,
As bark is welded to the growing tree.
And I, believing this, and deeming thee,
Faithful as throbbing pulse and teeming brain
Unto the law of life, didst go away,
A little absence- months, or was it days?
A passing from this room to that, a space
'Twixt end and start of chapter, breathing time,
'Twixt sentences. And thou didst change
As changes still the ever-moving vane,
Obedient to naught save ceaseless change.
And this thy love; the love that to me seemed
Fixed as a granite range of hills on hills
Uplifted heavenward, as thought of thee,
Within my soul was lifted; this sweet love
I held as iron wrought on iron; welded true,
With heat and strength and steady clanging blows,
This love I thought immutable as law.
Sublime as universal order; true
As Godward instinct in the finite mind;
This love has faltered, faded, colder grown,
Than winter twilight when the sun goes down.
Loving thee I've changed not, nor can change.
The love I gave thee, now thy love is cold,
Shivers, a starv'ling child, within a home
With broken casement and dismantled door.
And I am bankrupt, for the love I gave
Thee was my all. High, the measure heaped,
Was shaken and heaped high again; all
Unto thee given; and from love and thee
Nothing withheld. So trusting thee, I went,
And for a space remained; nor did fear
Foreshadow evil, Craven doubt concealed
His face from love.
His shuttle through the web. And year on year
Roll into cycles. Changes come to all.
To all save love.
What sayest thou? Even love
Can change? does change? a moment hold, until
I grasp thy meaning. So to thee sweet love
May vacillate and falter; may grow cold,
Skulk like a brute to cover; wilt like a vine
O'er-sapped and rank; worthless to withstand
A breath of winter.
A lie to say love changes. False as the lips
That utter vows from which the heart holds back;
False as the courage which shall loose a grip
Once taken. False as the hand that strikes not
When blows are needed. False as the tongue
That holds back speech from others' wrong; the
heart
That leaves its trust unfilled, its faith unkept;
Its truth ungleaned, like grainless wheat.
'Tis thou who changeth, thou. Love changes not,
Nor can it change. If to thee steadfast love
Doth wear a changeable face, thou ne'er hast seen
His face. Thou know'st him not, nor canst.
It is thyself thou seest, thine own image pale,
Reflected in a pool whose lowest depth
Were plumbed by a finger.