Songs and Sonnets (Coleman)/Love's Higher Way
LOVE'S HIGHER WAY.
Constrain me not! Dost thou not know
That if I turn from thee my face
'Tis but to hide the overflow
Of love? We need a little space
And solitude in which to kneel
And thank our God for this high grace
That He hath set His holy seal
Upon our lives. My heart doth burn
With consciousness of all I feel
And own to thee, and if I turn
For one brief moment from thy gaze,
'Tis but that I may better learn
To bear the unaccustomed blaze
Of that white light that like a flame
Thy love has set amidst my days.
For with that clearer light there came
A vision of the far-off sea
We mortals know not how to name,
That borders on Infinity.
Since when I am not all my own,
Nor wholly thine—some part of me
Responds to God, and God alone.
For love makes silence in the heart
As well as song, and rolls the stone
From buried selves, and makes us part
Of all that was and is to be—
High-priests of life; and though thou art
Revealer and revealed to me,
And my desire has been fulfilled,
And all my life is crowned in thee,
Yet there remains a chord that, thrilled
To keener sense, doth recognize
The spirit claim, and I am stilled
With deepened reverence that lies
Below all speech. Behold I lay
My heart in thine, O bid me rise
To find with thee Love's higher way
That leads past self into the wide,
Still reaches of eternal day!