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 it is a god,

Knows its own path,

And the outlets of the sky.



It was never for the mean;

It requireth courage stout,

Souls above doubt,

Valour 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 endeavour--

Keep thee to-day,

To-morrow, for ever,

Free as an Arab

Of thy beloved.



Cling with life to the maid;

But with the surprise,

First vague shadow of surmise,

Flits across her bosom young,

Of a joy apart from thee,

Free be she, fancy-free;

Nor thou detain her vesture's hem,

Nor the palest rose she flung

From her summer diadem.



Though thou loved her as thyself,

As a self of purer clay;

Though her parting dims the day,

Stealing grace from all alive;

Heartily know,

When half-gods go

The gods arrive.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson
(artwork by Remedios Varo)