What Love Is

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What Love Is

BY ORSON F. WHITNEY

What is love? Can speech define it? Love is mightier than language. Can the lesser bound the greater? Can the brook embrace the ocean?

Love ? Is it but lustful burning, Momentary burst of passion, Blooming forth from youthful vigor In the springtime of the senses?

Ne'er be day with night confounded, Substance mingled with its shadow. Lust, the garb of love assuming, Wanders forth a homeless beggar, Here today, tomorrow yonder Selfish, brutal, bent on taking, Savage, groveling, and ungrateful. Love,- possessor and provider, Ever giving, gaining ever, •

Wealthiest when most bestowing, Happiest when all imparting. Chivalrous, urbane, and gentle, Fine, and all around refining Anchored in appreciation, Loyal, constant, and unchanging.

Deem it not base-born, this passion, Even in its earthly phases Call it not impure, unholy, Till it seek a goal forbidden, Coveting the unbelonging Or pervert from wholesome purpose Its own lawful, pure possession Love dethroned by carnal craving, Lost in riotous o'erlivins:.

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Love is dual, love is twofold, Like the soul and all it symbols Body, spirit, both essential To its rounded full completion.

— "Love at first sight." Thus the simple, Reckoning not with things eternal, Deeming all of life imprisoned In a part of life called "present." Let them be, with their delusion Let them sleep, if they would slumber — They shall wake the morning cometh.

All things great have pre-existence, And a claim on life hereafter. Be this true of human living, Why not true of human loving? — Life and love are they not equal Complement of one another? God hath joined them. Who shall part them? Dare man, e'en in thought, divorce them?

Love is more than earthly longing, Love is more than mortal yearning, — More far more then lovers' plighting, More than marital uniting, Lest a world should go unpeopled.

Love? 'Tis spirit recognition, Mate to mate entreating, pleading, For renewal of affection, For continued fond communion, Formed of yore in some far planet, Ancestor of this creation ;

Formed by mutual attraction. Sanctioned by God's smile paternal Gift of Him, a boon benignant, Promise of a joy unending, From a union everduring.

Gate to life, and guide to living, Joy of earth, and All of Heaven. This is love, as I have dreamed it.