LORD, give me Love! give me the silent bliss Of meeting souls, of answering eyes and hands; The comfort of one heart that understands; The thrill and rapture of Love's sealing kiss. Or grant me -- lest I weary of all this -- The quiet of Death's unimagined lands, Wherein the longed-for Tree of Knowledge stands, Where Thou art, Lord -- and the great mysteries. Nay, let me sing, my God, and I'll forego, Love's smiling mouth, Death's sweetlier smiling eyes. Better my life long mourn in glorious woe, Than love unheard in a mute Paradise -- For no grief, no despair, can quail me long, While I can make these sweet to me in song. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...VIGNETTES OVERSEAS: 2. OFF ALGIERS by SARA TEASDALE ODE INSCRIBED TO W.H. CHANNING by RALPH WALDO EMERSON AN APPEAL TO MY COUNTRYWOMEN by FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS HARPER ON AN OLD MUFF by FREDERICK LOCKER-LAMPSON THE RAINY DAY by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW GARDEN DAYS: 7. THE GARDENER by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON THE LONG AGO by BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TAYLOR |