Give All to Love, by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Give All to Love

Give all to love;
Obey thy heart;
Friends, kindred, days,
Estate, good fame,
Plans, credit, and the Muse--
Nothing refuse.   'Tis a brave master;
Let it have scope:
Follow it utterly,
Hope beyond hope:
High and more high
It dives into noon,
With wing unspent,
Untold intent;
But it is a god,
Knows its own path,
And the outlets of the sky.   It was never for the mean;
It requireth courage stout,
Souls above doubt,
Valour unbending:
Such 'twill reward; --
They shall return
More than they were,
And ever ascending.   Leave all for love;
Yet, hear me, yet,
One word more thy heart behoved,
One pulse more of firm endeavour--
Keep thee to-day,
To-morrow, for ever,
Free as an Arab
Of thy beloved.   Cling with life to the maid;
But with the surprise,
First vague shadow of surmise,
Flits across her bosom young,
Of a joy apart from thee,
Free be she, fancy-free;
Nor thou detain her vesture's hem,
Nor the palest rose she flung
From her summer diadem.   Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay;
Though her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive;
Heartily know,
When half-gods go
The gods arrive.

poems.one - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Ralph Waldo Emerson