Classic Poem

Oh! Love's the sweetest joy of earth,
Love's keenest pang is bliss,
And, like a wild, delirious bee,
We hang upon a kiss:

With lip to lip and heart and heart,
We live in that sweet death,
And feel the breeze of paradise,
Upon a loved one's breath.

We lean upon a beating breast,
As on a throne of gold;
And, like a monarch, thence, look out,
On love-hued sea and wold.

We dwell upon a loved one's song,
As on a strain of heaven,
And think it charms the throbbing stars
That throng the halls of Even.

Oh! Love is like a river-flood,
That rolls and pauses never--
An ocean-tide that bears us on
Forever and forever.

This is the lore I come to teach the world--
That Love formed all of matter, all of spirit;
That Love keeps all things, lest they fall to chaos;
That Love's pulse vibrates throughout all God's works,
Whose beat is harmony like angels' songs--
And man is most like God and least like Devil,
When he most loves all things which God hath made.