“IF LOVE WERE ALL.”
(PRISONER OF ZENDA.)
“If love were all!” Can love be less than all
Here in the world the God of Love hath made?
If love _were_ all—and love were unafraid,
And knew not death’s corrupting funeral pall!
Oh Princess, with thy soul by heavenly call
In love’s divinest panoply arrayed,
Hath thy soul-sight thy love-sight so betrayed
That love from his supremest place should fall?
Yet wert thou right. Thy woman’s heart divined
The soul of love’s transcendent perfectness:
For like a star within a mist confined
And burning thro’ love’s soul is righteousness.
Thus love _is_ all—tho’, as on Calvary,
Renunciation love’s fulfillment be!