O' Lyric Love, half angel and half bird, <br />And all a wonder and a wild desire,- <br />Boldest of hearts that ever braved the sun, <br />Took sanctuary within the holier blue, <br />And sang a kindred soul out to his face,- <br />Yet human at the red-ripe of the heart- <br />When the first summons from the darkling earth <br />Reached thee amid thy chambers, blanched their blue, <br />And bared them of the glory-to drop down, <br />To toil for man, to suffer or to die,- <br />This is the same voice: can thy soul know change? <br />Hail then, and hearken from the realms of help! <br />Never may I commence my song, my due <br />To God who best taught song by gift of thee, <br />Except with bent head and beseeching hand- <br />That still, despite the distance and the dark, <br />What was, again may be; some interchange <br />Of grace, some splendor once thy very thought, <br />Some benediction anciently thy smile: <br />-Never conclude, but raising hand and head <br />Thither where eyes, that cannot reach, yet yearn <br />For all hope, all sustainment, all reward, <br />Their upmost up and on,-so blessing back <br />In those thy realms of help, that heaven thy home, <br />Some whiteness which, I judge, thy face makes proud, <br />Some wanness where, I think, thy foot may fall!<br /><br />Robert Browning<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/o-lyric-love/
