17 januari 2010

~Sunday Poem!

      Daydreamsdetail PrecottDavies

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,
Valor unbending,
It will 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 endeavor,--
Keep thee to-day,
To-morrow, forever,
Free as an Arab
Of thy beloved.

Cling with life to the maid;
But when 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 survive.
.

By Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)
Painting by Norman Precott Davies (1862-1915)

2 opmerkingen:

HAWTHORN HALL zei

That is a really beautiful poem. I love the quote on your header by C.S. Lewis. There is nothing quite so wonderful as returning once more to read the treasured books of our youth!

Gillian

Madelief zei

Hoi Anna,

Een prachtig gedicht en schitterende tekening! Lieve groet, Madelief