Poetry · Sonnet

Sonnet

I Love Thee for Thyself Alone⁠—Thyself Alone

I love thee for thyself alone⁠—thyself alone;

For that great soul, whose breath most full and rare,

Shall to humanity a message bear,

Flooding their dreary waste with organ-tone:

The truth that in thine eyes holds starry throne

And coins the words that issue from thy lips;

Heroic courage, that meets no eclipse,

And humbler virtues on thy pathway strewn;⁠—

These love I so, that if they swift uprise

To sure fulfilment in more perfect spheres,

Still will I listen underneath the skies

For thy new song, with seldom-dropping tears,

And midst my daily tasks of love will wait

The angel Death, guardian of Heaven’s gate.