Classic Poem

Eternal youth is thine.—
The man who loveth thee
Grows ageless like the sea
And youthful like the changeless mountain-line.

Love gives his vast eternal youth to God.
The man who pours his soul
Deep into Love's control
God's temple-floors hath trod.

The man who loveth thee,
O tenderest living thing,
Is crowned immortal king
Of past and present and futurity.

The man who loveth with the love that looks
Straight into Love's own eyes
The threatening death defies
And finds fresh water-brooks.

Others may love thee well.
But I love thee, dear heart,
With the strong soul of Art,
And with a force transcending heaven and hell.

I give thee just the wildest sweetest thing
That under God's blue sky
Can sing or throb or sigh;
A poet's soul I bring:

Its fiery hopes that rise
And follow thee, and still
Would carry out Love's will
Though Death stood in the way with lurid eyes.