Fragment IV

What is Success? Out of the endless ore     Of deep desire to coin the utmost gold     Of passionate memory; to have lived so well     That the fifth moon, when it swims up once more     Through orchard boughs where mating orioles build     And apple flowers unfold,     Find not of that dear need that all things tell     The heart unburdened nor the arms unfilled.     O Love, whereof my boyhood was the dream,     My youth the beautiful novitiate,     Life was so slight a thing and thou so great,     How could I make thee less than all-supreme!     In thy sweet transports not alone I thought     Mingled the twain that panted breast to breast.     The sun and stars throbbed with them; they were caught     Into the pulse of Nature and possessed     By the same light that consecrates it so.     Love! - 'tis the payment of the debt we owe     The beauty of the world, and whensoe'er     In silks and perfume and unloosened hair     The loveliness of lovers, face to face,     Lies folded in the adorable embrace,     Doubt not as of a perfect sacrifice     That soul partakes whose inspiration fills     The springtime and the depth of summer skies,     The rainbow and the clouds behind the hills,     That excellence in earth and air and sea     That makes things as they are the real divinity.