te his with an infinite range,
And inherit
His power to put life in the darkness and cold?
Oh, live and love worthily, bear and be bold!
Whom Summer made friends of, let Winter estrange!

--
St. 4. Whom Summer made friends of, etc.: i.e., let Winter (Adversity)
estrange those whom Summer (Prosperity) made friends of,
but let it not estrange us.

IV. Along the Beach.

1.

I will be quiet and talk with you,
And reason why you are wrong.
You wanted my love--is that much true?
And so I did love, so I do:
What has come of it all along?

2.

I took you--how could I otherwise?
For a world to me, and more;
For all, love greatens and glorifies
Till God's a-glow, to the loving eyes,
In what was mere earth before.

--
St. 2. love greatens and glorifies: see the poem,
"Wanting is--what?"

3.

Yes, earth--yes, mere ignoble earth!
Now do I misstate, mistake?
Do I wrong your weakness and call it worth?
Expect all harvest, dread no dearth,
Seal my sense up for your sake?

4.

Oh Love, Love, no, Love! not so, indeed
You were just weak earth, I knew:
With much in you waste, with many a weed,
And plenty of passions run to seed,
But a little good grain too.

5.

And such as you were, I took you for mine:
Did not you find me yours,
To watch the olive and wait the vine,
And wonder when rivers of oil and wine
Would flow, as the Book assures?

--
St. 5. yours, to watch the olive and wait the vine: "olive" and "vine"
are used metaphorically for the capabilities of her husband's nature.

6.

Well, and if none of these good things came,
What did the failure prove?
The man was my whole world, all the same,
With his flowers to praise or his weeds to blame,
And, either or both, to love.

--
St. 6. The failure of fruit in her husband proved the absoluteness
of her love, proved that he was her all, notwithstanding.

7.

Yet this turns now to a fault--there! there!
That I do love, watch too long,
And wait too well, and weary and wear;
And 'tis all an old story, and my despair
Fit subject for some new song:

--
St. 7. Yet this turns now to a fault: i.e., her watching the olive
and waiting the vi