Wanting is—what?
Summer redundant,
Blueness abundant,
—Where is the spot?
Beamy the world, yet a blank all the same,
—Framework which waits for a picture to frame:
What of the leafage, what of the flower?
Roses embowering with nought they embower!
Come then, complete incompletion, O comer,
Pant through the blueness, perfect the Summer!
Breathe but one breath
Rose-beauty above,
And all that was death
Grows life, grows love,
Grows love!
This is still the love of earth; but dealt with so grandly, that it is
no wonder that some have understood it of the higher love, and to the
question of the first line would give the answer, “God.” Nor can it be
said that the thought is alien—rather is it close akin; for is not the
earthly love, when pure and true, an image of the heavenly? It would be
well, indeed, if love songs were oftener written in such a way as to
suggest thoughts of the love of Heaven. The Bible is especially fearless
in its use of the one to illustrate the other. With the higher thought
in view, we are reminded of the closing lines of “The Rhyme of the
Duchess May,” by Mrs. Browning—
“And I smiled to think God’s greatness flowed around our
incompleteness—
Round our restlessness, His rest.”
Compare “By the Fireside,” especially stanza 39.
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