"The Poet's Corner..."

Now on the summit of Love's topmost peak

Kiss we and part; no farther can we go:

And better death than we from high to low

Should dwindle or decline from strong to weak.

We have found all, there is no more to seek;

All have we proved, no more is there to know;

And Time could only tutor us to eke

Out rapture's warmth with custom's afterglow.

We cannot keep at such a height as this;

And even straining souls like ours inhale

But once in life so rarified a bliss.

What if we lingered till love's breath should fail!

Heaven of my Earth! one more celestial kiss,

Then down by separate pathways to the vale.

Alfred Austin