UNITED, a poem

OUR single lives are circled round
     By an embracing sea;
Are joined to all that has been, bound
     To all that is to be:
The past and future meet and cross,
And in life's ocean is no loss.

The music of the summer dawn,
     The silence of the midnight sky,
The stars, in azure deeps withdrawn,
     Reveal a single mystery:
And blent with these, the whisperings
     Of spirit find each shy retreat,
And link the soul with viewless things,
     In union close and sweet.

Failure itself may count as gain
     In aspiration; paved with fire
May be the path that leads from pain;
     And unfulfilled desire
May kindle that pure flame above
Whose earthly name is love!

"United" by Florence Earle Coates. Published in Mine and Thine (1904).