Talk of the Heart — Forbidden

I begged you, my friend: turn the blaze of your eyes from my face.
I am a quiet volcano... and my fear is that it may burst and rage...
What is there between me and you?
In my heart is a vow; I burn my blood — happily — as its offering.
In my heart is a vow; I feed it my youth, until every pulsing vein runs dry.
I have no way to swerve from it, no way to forsake it...
Once my ears heard from his lips
that his heart has gone mad for none but me.
Shall I consent, then, that he be more faithful than I, more true?!

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And O my friend, the blessing of love is beyond compare,
and the noblest thing in it is to guard it in a halo of reverence, that it never sink low.
Let there be no love unless it either lifts us to a heaven and opens wide horizons to the good,
or rises above worldly things and sets the conquering will to rule over the body.
... And what spiritual bliss lies in deprivation, when it soars!
It places man in the rank of a god!!

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It is lovely, when you hunger, to eat; and when you thirst, to drink your fill;
but heroism, all of it, is — when you thirst and hunger —
to refuse what is forbidden, and turn from it in disdain.