Read "Love's Supremacy" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
As yon great Sun in his supreme condition / Absorbs small worlds and makes them all his own, / So does my love absorb each vain ambition, / Each outside purpose which my life has known. / Stars cannot shine so near that vast orb'd splendour; / They are content to feed his flames of fire: / And so my heart is satisfied to render / Its strength, its all, to meet thy strong desire.
As in a forest when dead leaves are falling / From all save some perennial green tree, / So one by one I find all pleasures palling / That are not linked with or enjoyed by thee. / And all the homage that the world may proffer, / I take as perfumed oils or incense sweet, / And think of it as one thing more to offer, / And sacrifice to Love, at thy dear feet.
I love myself because thou art my lover, / My name seems dear since uttered by thy voice; / Yet, argus-eyed, I watch and would discover / Each blemish in the object of thy choice. / I coldly sit in judgment on each error, / To my soul's gaze I hold each fault of me, / Until my pride is lost in abject terror, / Lest I become inadequate to thee.
Like some swift-rushing and sea-seeking river, / Which gathers force the farther on it goes, / So does the current of my love forever / Find added strength and beauty as it flows. / The more I give, the more remains for giving, / The more receive, the more remains to win. / Ah! only in eternities of living / Will life be long enough to love thee in.