From the BOOK OF SONGS

TO JENNY 
 
                                    I 
 
           Words -- lies, hollow shadows, nothing more, 
                   Growding Life from all sides round! 
           In you, dead and tired, must I outpour 
                   Spirits that in me abound? 
           Yet Earth's envious Gods have scanned before 
                   Human fire with gaze profound; 
           And forever must the Earthling poor 
                   Mate his bosom's glow with sound. 
           For, if passion leaped up, vibrant, bold, 
                   In the Soul's sweet radiance, 
           Daringly it would your worlds enfold, 
           Would dethrone you, would bring you down low, 
                   Would outsoar the Zephyr-dance. 
           Ripe a world above you then would grow. 
            
 
                                TO JENNY 
 
                                    I 
 
           Jenny! Teasingly you may inquire 
                   Why my songs "To Jenny" I address, 
           When for you alone my pulse beats higher, 
           When my songs for you alone despair, 
           When you only can their heart inspire, 
                   When your name each syllable must confess, 
                   When you lend each note melodiousness, 
                   When no breath would stray from the Goddess? 
           'Tis because so sweet the dear name sounds, 
                   And its cadence says so much to me, 
           And so full, so sonorous it resounds, 
           Like to vibrant Spirits in the distance, 
                   Like the gold-stringed Cithern's harmony, 
           Like some wondrous, magical existence. 
 
 
                                   II 
 
           See! I could a thousand volumes fill, 
                   Writing only "Jenny" in each line, 
           Still they would a world of thought conceal, 
           Deed eternal and unchanging Will, 
           Verses sweet that yearning gently still, 
                   All the glow and all the Aether's shine, 
                   Anguished sorrow's pain and joy divine, 
                   All of Life and Knowledge that is mine. 
           I can read it in the stars up younder, 
                   From the Zephyr it comes back to me, 
           From the being of the wild waves' thunder. 
           Truly, I would write it down as a refrain, 
                   For the coming centuries to see -- 
           LOVE IS JENNY, JENNY IS LOVE'S NAME. 
 
                                       (written in November 1836)