Love and Sacrifice

Where it surfaces

• Wings of a Dove

  The dove returns to his mate who calls 'To love and rest,' suggesting that love provides the context for true peace.

• The Maryland Yellow-Throat

  The speaker's longing for Mary reflects a deep affection and desire for her presence.

• Four Things

  The call to love fellow-men sincerely reflects the theme of selfless love.

• To My Lady Graygown: With a Handful of Verses

  The verses are offered as a gift of love and devotion to the beloved, who is the source of inspiration and joy.

• Rappelle-Toi

  The speaker's loyal love persists through separation, sorrow, and death, culminating in a soul that lingers to recite a litany of love.

• Two Songs of Heine

  The second poem expresses a tender, protective love, with the speaker's sorrow and prayer for the beloved's enduring purity.

• For Katrina’s Window

  The light of love that nevermore shall die is enshrined within the window's realm.

• The Prison and the Angel

  Love is portrayed as the angel that frees the soul, requiring trust and following even through darkness.

• Joy and Duty

  The Master whose name is Love teaches that duty becomes divine when infused with joy, linking love to the fulfillment of duty.

• Love and Light

  The chapter explores different kinds of love, emphasizing the love that leads life upward as the noblest.

• A Babe Among the Stars

  Incarnate love is celebrated as the infant sings of divine love.

• The Bargain

  The speaker surrenders all worldly treasures and finally the heart itself, a total self-offering for the divine Pearl.

• The Way

  The poem emphasizes that walking in love, even if it leads to wandering, is the true way to reach the blessed state, contrasting with a self-centered pursuit of salvation.

• The Toiling of Felix

  Felix's rescues of a fainting comrade and a drowning raftsman exemplify selfless love and sacrifice.

• Another Chance

  The speaker dreams of pouring out love, offering kindness, forgiveness, and fellowship to all.

• Little Boatie

  The speaker's love for the child is expressed through protective care, while the father's labor at sea represents sacrifice for the family.

• The Echo in the Heart

  The speaker's love transcends external markers of beauty or lineage, rooted in an inner, heartfelt recognition.

• The River of Dreams

  The poem concludes with the soul reaching 'Love’s great deep,' suggesting that love is the ultimate destination and source of freedom.

• Music

  Section VIII explicitly connects music to love, describing how it articulates the hopes, fears, and desires of love, and section VII honors the sacrifice of soldiers in war.

• The Three Best Things

  Love is portrayed as the heart's immortal thirst to be completely known and forgiven, a redemptive force.

• Love's Reason

  The poem redefines love as rooted in inner harmony and eternal womanly grace, transcending mere physical attraction.

• Portrait and Reality

  The speaker's deep, unchanging love for the beloved is central, celebrating her beauty and delight.

• The Wind of Sorrow

  Love is portrayed as a fire that, though dimmed in tranquil times, is fanned to its clearest flame by the wind of sorrow, suggesting sacrifice and shared hardship deepen true love.

• A Legend of Service

  The test reveals which servant loves the Master best through willingness to obey without hesitation.

• Spring in the South

  The speaker interprets the season's message as one of love and pure delight, linking the renewal of nature to the love shared with the beloved.

• Love's Nearness

  The poem expresses the enduring, nearness of love despite physical distance.

• A Mother's Birthday

  The poem expresses deep gratitude for a mother's love and the speaker's desire to honor her sacrifice.

• One World

  Love is described as the only living root underlying the worlds of being and doing.

• Hide and Seek

  Love is portrayed as enduring beyond separation, with the speaker's patient hope.

• Dulcis Memoria

  The parents' love for their child is expressed through the pain of loss and the act of keeping his memory alive.

• For Katrina’s Sun-Dial

  The poem asserts that for those who love, time ceases to be a measurable quantity, elevating love above temporal concerns.

• The Mocking-Bird

  The mockingbird's night song is described as a song of love, contrasting with its daytime mimicry.

• For the Friends at Hurstmont

  The fire upon the hearth is Love, and life is made for love and cheer.

• The Statue of Sherman by St. Gaudens

  The poem emphasizes Sherman's love of peace and his willingness to endure war for the nation's salvation.

• New Year's Eve

  Marguerite's gentle, selfless companionship in the dream—understanding his troubles and offering comfort—reflects a love that transcends death.

• A Home Song

  Love is presented as a foundational element that transforms a house into a home.

• Shelley

  The poem speaks of Shelley's passionate longing to invest the golden dream of Love's immortal fire with mortal robes, a sacrifice of self for art.

• Spring in the North

  The narrator's love is deepened by the long wait, and the beloved is seen as the fulfillment of spring's promise.

• Nepenthe

  The beloved's silent, unconditional forgiveness exemplifies sacrificial love that restores the speaker.

• Departure

  The poem centers on the pain of parting and the beloved's sorrow, highlighting the sacrifice inherent in love.

• Without Disguise

  The speaker sacrifices pride and reputation for the sake of honest love, accepting the penalty of rejection.

• Gratitude

  Love is portrayed as the constant, guiding force in life, leading the speaker with unwavering care.

• Undine

  The fairy tale of love and woe entrances the narrator's heart with tearful joy.

• Love in a Look

  The poem explores love as a transcendent force, where the beloved's gaze offers a closeness deeper than physical touch, suggesting a sacrificial surrender of self to the other's spirit.

• My April Lady

  The poem concludes that the lady's true name is Love, suggesting love encompasses both joy and sorrow.

• A Lover's Envy

  The speaker's envy is not possessive but selfless, desiring only to give and serve the beloved.

• The Hermit Thrush

  The poem intertwines divine love with intimate earthly love, celebrating both as sources of rapture.

• The Gentle Traveller

  The traveller's greatest joy is found in the embrace of a loved one, emphasizing love as the ultimate destination.

• Hymn of Labor

  Every deed of love and kindness done to others is framed as an act done to Christ, highlighting sacrificial love in daily labor.

• The Distant Road

  The love of a friend is portrayed as a gentle, understanding heart that brings light and comfort in a lonely world.

• The Broken Sword

  The offering of the broken sword and the acceptance of death for God's glory.

• The Tribe of the Helpers

  The helpers' acts of turning from their own road to rescue others, taking up burdens, and speaking comfort to mourners exemplify sacrificial love.

• Hymn of Joy

  The lines 'Teach us how to love each other' and 'Brother-love binds man to man' emphasize love as a central divine and human virtue.

• Echoes from the Greek Anthology

  The poems 'Starlight', 'Phosphor-Hesper', and 'Seasons' celebrate romantic love and the longing for union, even at the cost of personal transformation.

• Rappel d'Amour

  The poem centers on a lover's plea for reunion, emphasizing forgiveness and the willingness to give more despite past hurt.

• Christmas Tears

  The joy of giving and living is rooted in love, and the tears shed are pearls of joy love-shared, emphasizing love's enduring gift even through loss.

• Dorothea

  Love is portrayed as a deepening force that brings rest and joy even in absence.

• Inscription for a Tomb in England

  The departed gave gifts of love and cheer, which transform sorrow into gladness and courage in the face of death.

• A Ballad of Santa Claus

  St. Nicholas's acts of giving, such as providing dowries for poor maidens and rescuing children, exemplify selfless love and sacrifice.

• Storm-Music

  The closing lines affirm that 'True love will conquer strife' and that strength comes from conflict, linking love to the endurance of hardship.

• The Name of France

  References to blood outpoured and sacrificial strife highlight the theme of love for humanity through sacrifice.

• Come Back Again, Jeanne d’Arc

  Jeanne's martyrdom as the ultimate sacrifice for her nation.

• Jeanne d'Arc Returns

  The poem emphasizes giving all—hands, feet, heart, and soul—for the beloved country.

• Liberty Enlightening the World

  The speaker urges America to 'make clean thy soul for sacrifice on Freedom’s altar-fire,' linking love of country with willingness to suffer and fight.

• The Red Cross

  The Red Cross embodies divine love that bears the load of all who suffer and bleed.

• Dulciora

  The parents' love for the child is expressed through the pain of loss and the enduring embrace of memory.

• Jesus Return

  The 'love that triumphs over strife' and Christ's role as Friend of Man underscore sacrificial love.

• One in Christ

  Emphasizes the giving and forgiving heart that follows love in life, reflecting sacrificial love.

• Victoria

  The army is led by love and light, and followers fight for the King with self-giving devotion.

• Rencontre

  The speaker's selfless offer of a single rose and a brief walk before departing, asking nothing more of the beloved's love.

• Day and Night

  The poem concludes that love is all in all, transcending the fleeting measures of time.

• An Hour

  The poem centers on the intensity of love, where a single hour with the beloved becomes a year of life, marked by joy, fear, and rapture.

• Eight Echoes from the Poems of Auguste Angellier

  Central to the entire chapter, exploring love's tenderness, longing, and the sacrifice of letting go in 'Resignation'.

• A Fairy Tale

  The fairy bestows a heart of love to humankind, emphasizing love as a foundational gift.

• Christ Our Comrade

  References Christ's sacrificial death ('Who died to make us free') and His role as the embodiment of divine love.