Now
By
Robert Browning
Out
of your whole life give but a moment!
All
of your life that has gone before,
All
to come after it,—so you ignore,
So
you make perfect the present,—condense,
In
a rapture of rage, for perfection’s endowment,
Thought
and feeling and soul and sense—
Merged
in a moment which gives me at last
You
around me for once, you beneath me, above me—
Me—sure
that despite of time future, time past,—
This
tick of our life-time’s one moment you love me!
How
long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet—
The
moment eternal—just that and no more—
When
ecstasy’s utmost we clutch at the core
While
cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut and lips meet!
This
poem is in the public domain.