“Fear not to love; nor deem thy soul too slight
To walk in human love’s heroic ways:
Great Love shall teach thee how to love aright,
Though few the elect of earth who win his praise.
“Fear not, O maid! nor doubt lest wedded life
Thy childhood’s heavenward yearnings blot or blur;
There needs the vestal heart to make the wife;
The best that once it hoped survives in her.
“All love is Sacrifice—a flame that still
Illumes, yet cleanses as with fire, the breast:
It frees and lifts the holier heart and will;
A heap of ashes pale it leaves the rest.”
Thus spake the hermit from his stony chair;
Then long time watched her speeding towards her home,
As when a dove through sunset’s roseate air
Sails to her nest o’er crag and ocean’s foam.