What is this reverence in extreme delight That waits upon my kisses as they Storm,
Vehemently, this height Of Steep and inaccessible delight;
And seems with newer ecstasy to warm Their slackening ardour, and invite,
From nearer heaven, the swarm Of hiving stars with mortal sweetness down?
Never before Have I endured an exaltation So exquisite in anguish, and so sore In promise and possession of full peace.
Cease not,
O nevermore Cease,
To lift my joy, as upon windy wings,
Into that infinite ascension, where,
In baths of glittering air,
It finds a heaven and like an angel sings.
Heaven waits above,
There where the clouds and fastnesses of love Lift earth into the skies;
And I have seen the glimmer of the gates,
And twice or thrice Climbed half the difficult way,
Only to say Heaven waits.
Only to fall away from paradise.
But now,
O what is
Mysterious and uncapturable bliss That I have never known, yet seems to be Simple as breath, and easy as a smile,
And older than the earth?
Now but a little while This ultimate ecstasy Has parted from its birth,
Now but a little while been wholly mine,
Yet am I utterly possessed By the delicious tyrant and divine Child, this importunate guest.
