Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. O JOY DIVINE OF FRIENDS, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 4. O JOY DIVINE OF FRIENDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: O joy divine of friends
Last Line: Fade but to symbols of that perfect union!
Subject(s): Friendship


O JOY divine of friends!
To hold within the circle of one's arms
More than the universe holds:
So sweet, so rare, so precious beyond words,
The god so tenderly mortal!

Not kisses only or embraces,
Nor the sweet pain and passion of the flesh alone;
But more, far more,
To feel (ah joy!) the creature deep within
Touch on its mate, unite, and lie entranced
There, ages down, and ages long, in light,
Suffused, divine—where all these other pleasures
Fade but to symbols of that perfect union!





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