The Right to Love

"O Love, be merciful to me," I cried,
"Turn thou, oh, turn to me, my lady's face; "'
And, as a dying man for new strength prays,
I prayed to Love and Love's own voice replied, —
"The prayer is granted, be thou satisfied."
Ah me! the pity and glory of those days,
The lovely, mystic, unfamiliar ways
Of bliss wherein my spirit did abide!

Ah me! the roar of that dark sea and cold,
The flowerless paths, and heavens bereft of light '
O Love, and O my love, I was too bold!
What right had I thy love to seek or hold?
Yet now Love saith from his unmeasured height,
"Let thy life show thou hadst alone the right.''