Give All To Love

Give all to love;     Obey thy heart;     Friends, kindred, days,     Estate, good-fame,     Plans, credit and the Muse,--     Nothing refuse.     'T is 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 arrive.