Love's Primacy
By George Sterling
Love, the one holiness—shall I resist
His all-consuming flame, and dare to think
That thus my soul has "broken any link
Of fleshly chains? For chains are all as mist
To those who turn from grosser chords to list
Love's consecrating harmonies, and drink
Where flowers tremble at his fountain's brink-
Pure as a lily that thy lips have kissed.
Nay! I will turn me to the evening stars
(Some husht and jewelled dusk where roses die)
And crave thy passion and the breath thereof.
Wasting my sou! on Time's investing bars,
And bearing in the heart thou makest high
That pain which is the shadow cast by Love.
San Francisco.