It's been several days since the inquiry about the poem by Emerson that
Kipling chose to include with his story "The Children of the Zodiac,"
but just in case no one has identified it, here goes. Kipling quoted the
final stanza of "Give All to Love" (1846), which is not so much about
loving someone else as about loving oneself--in the sense of
self-reliance, in the sense of recognizing the god within us. Here is
the entire poem:
Give All to Love
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,
Valor unbending,
It will reward,--
They shall return
More than they were,
And every ascending.
Leave all for love;
Yet, hear me, yet;
One word more thy heart behoved,
One pulse more of firm endeavor,
Keep thee today,
Tomorrow, forever,
Free as a Arab
Of thy beloved.
Cling with life to the maid;
But when 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.
All best wishes,
William B. Dillingham
Emory University
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
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