Quote#Love
O GAIN that lurk’st ungained in all gain!
Quote byFrancis Thompson · 1859–1907
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Desiderium Indesideratum.
English (original)
O GAIN that lurk’st ungainèd in all gain! O love we just fall short of in all love! O height that in all heights art still above! O beauty that dost leave all beauty pain! Thou unpossessed that mak’st possession vain,
— Francis Thompson
More from Francis Thompson
Thou canst not stir a flower / Without troubling of a star.
Nothing begins, and nothing ends, That is not paid with moan, For we are born in other's pain, And perish in our own.
Look for me in the nurseries of Heaven.
The fairest things have fleetest end, Their scent survives their close: But the rose's scent is bitterness To him that loved the rose.
The hills look over on the South, And Southward dreams the sea; And with the sea-breeze hand in hand, Came innocence and she.
The innocent moon, that nothing does but shine, Moves all the labouring surges of the world.