Sunlit Hours

<SPAN name="XXIII"></SPAN>XXIII<br/> <br/> <br/> Oh, let us live out love with all our powers,<br/> Aspire audaciously in thoughts most high,<br/> That they may interweave in harmony<br/> In the supremest ecstasy of ours.<br/> Because within our twined souls<br/> Something more pure than aught in us,<br/> More sacred, mightier, unrolls&mdash;<br/> Join we our hands, and let us seek it thus.<br/> <br/> What matters it that naught but tears,<br/> Our halting speech avail<br/> For that whose puissant beauty, as it nears,<br/> Doth make our two hearts quail?<br/> Oh, may we thus forever meet<br/> <br/> Love's stern, ensweetened pains,<br/> Kneeling, by fervour overcome,<br/> Before the sudden god within that reigns,<br/> So violent and so burning sweet,<br/> Our very souls succumb.<br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <br/> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />