The Ecstasy

Heaven waits above,

There where the clouds and fastnesses of love

Lift earth into the skies;

And I have seen the glimmer of the gates,

And twice or thrice

Climbed half the difficult way,

Only to say

Heaven waits.

Only to fall away from paradise.

But now, O what is this

Mysterious and uncapturable bliss

That I have never known, yet seems to be

Simple as breath, and easy as a smile,

And older than the earth?

Now but a little while

This ultimate ecstasy

Has parted from its birth,

Now but a little while been wholly mine,

Yet am I utterly possessed

By the delicious tyrant and divine

Child, this importunate guest.