Love That Faltered

Florence Earle Coates (1850โ€“1927)

Mine and Thine (1904)

Love that faltered for an hourHad not felt the awful powerOf the god whom gods adore;Of the god before whose portalKneel the deathless and the mortal,โ€”Suppliant forever more.

Love that faltered had not heardLove's divine, compelling word,Or it instant had obeyed;Giving with the glad devotionOf the river for the ocean,โ€”Doubting not, and unafraid.

For with Love alone is joyFree from shadow of alloy;And before his sacred shrine,Sorrow, in her deepest sadness,Guards a hope more blest than gladness,And through worship grows divine!