Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE CALL OF LOVE, by CHARLES V. H. ROBERTS First Line: O immortal love! The centuries Last Line: O sequestered facelove's deathless countenance! Subject(s): Hearts; Love - Nature Of | ||||||||
O Immortal Love! The centuries Have confessed thy powers and art to please, Yet still thou guardest all thy mystery. Command is writ upon thy browthe free Of Earth e'er have yielded to thy sway. Time has not bent thee to the ground, Aged thy face or deafed thine ears to sound; There's enraptured secret glitter in thine eyes, And in thy voice, an outflung solo from the skies, An earth-lyre for Nature's Mastery. Nor rocks, nor caves can from thy presence hide; No soul from thee can surgéd sea divide; From dawn thy bridal veil fills all man's sight, And steels the thews of youth to deeds of might. Thou art Queen Beauty, in Life's Dynasty. Deep through Life, emotion sheds thy beams, Like stars that twinkle in the spring-fed streams. Thy waving hair as years, upon the surface blows; Thy cheeks reflect the lily, then the rose, Each petal beating in some human heart. Thou dost weave a magic on the waiting air, Through twilights, on and on, enchanting free. Leaf-dance and petal-gleam thine errants see; Hear woodland voices, soft and fair, And the vaster fairy footsteps of the night. Who can glimpse thy scheme, thy jewelled visage, For Philosophy and Science are but mirage That oppose their own great doctrines. Can a storm Stir the petals of a rose, or tempest warm The twilight into day before the passage of the night? Then Love, thou hast a savage courage and Deliberate force, that venture and expand The whirl-winds of fierce Nature's great desires. Storm or heights, the flaming sun or fires Of Hell, control not thy spirit's soaring might. Oft thou art wild, mad and irridescent In thine illsthen mist-veiled, dim and convalescent, Dream-drowsy in thy languor and thy mystery; Voluptuous in spice-scents, thy pulses beat fiercely; Thine opal heart leapsin sunset crimsoning. O rapturous one, thou art the keeper of the keys To Paradise. Guard well the gateslest on my knees I shall demand they be unlocked wide Openthen engulfed by stern Passion's tide, A pagan god inhaling rare incense. Thou dost make souls flash together in A flame of new-found joy, and all within Thy wondrous unseen presence. A swooning perfume O'er the quietest sleepers in the world consumes To vibrant ecstasieshitherto unknown. Then Love, hold high thy chalice lest I quaff Too deep, lured by the perfume of thy wine; For the fairest liquor yields its spurious dregs, That feed the mortal and choke the soul divine, The fountain of our hopes and destinies. One cannot suffer who has never loved, Nor can he love who has not sorrow known. Dream worlds and all our many pains are moved Beneath thy wings, cherished pathways shown; Thy half-veiled star keeps vigil over us. Thou art a Child, a Mother, Husband, Wife. Oh! to solve the single secret of thy life's Philosophy, thy noble madness, thy honeyed drugs, Thy Memory and Truth that hugs Each soul to the very arms of grim-robed Death! Thou art remembered from the other worlds; Perhaps been died foror by History hurled Through many pains, laments and secret joys: But Time, nor Change, nor fiery Fate destroys Thou art conscious alwaysquick'ning through eternity. Thou art a dream to deeds of man's eternal days, Of passions peerless, and of half-glimpsed ways To happiness. Thy reeds of joy are mine Which pipe in flame and make theenear-divine. O sequestered FaceLove's deathless countenance! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RESCUE THE DEAD by DAVID IGNATOW BUTTERFLIES UNDER PERSIMMON by MARK JARMAN CHAMBER MUSIC: 27 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 28 by JAMES JOYCE CHAMBER MUSIC: 30 by JAMES JOYCE HE WHO KNOWS LOVE by ELSA BARKER LOVE'S HUMBLENESS by ELSA BARKER SONG (IN THE LUCKY CHANCE) by APHRA BEHN A PROPOSAL by CHARLES V. H. ROBERTS |
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