The Ecstasy

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.