Give All To Love

A friend suggested I read Ralph W. Emerson's "Give All To Love". I think she was trying to give me advice about something but the point escapes me for the moment. Maybe it's something I'll get later on when I have more time. However, since it's in the public domain I thought I would share it and you readers, who might appreciate it and may understand the underlying meanings. It's not my favorite of Emerson's poems but it's okay.

Give all to love;

Obey thy heart;

Friends, kindred, days,

Estate, good fame,

Plans, credit, and the muse;

Nothing refuse.

'Tis a brave master,

Let it have scope,

Follow it utterly,

Hope beyond hope;

High and more high,

It dives into noon,

With wing unspent,

Untold intent;

But 'tis a god,

Knows its own path,

And the outlets of the sky.

'Tis not for the mean,

It requireth courage stout,

Souls above doubt,

Valor unbending;

Such 'twill reward,

They shall return

More than they were,

And ever ascending.

Leave all for love;—

Yet, hear me, yet,

One word more thy heart behoved,

One pulse more of firm endeavor,

Keep thee to-day,

To-morrow, for ever,

Free as an Arab

Of thy beloved.

Cling with life to the maid;

But when the surprise,

Vague shadow of surmise,

Flits across her bosom young

Of a joy apart from thee,

Free be she, fancy-free,

Do not thou detain a hem,

Nor the palest rose she flung

From her summer diadem.

Though thou loved her as thyself,

As a self of purer clay,

Tho' her parting dims the day,

Stealing grace from all alive,

Heartily know,

When half-gods go,

The gods arrive.