Coming by evening through the wintry city
We said that art is out of love with life.
Here we approach a love that is not pity.
This antique's discipline, tenderly severe,
Renews belief in love yet masters feeling,
Asking of us a grace in what we bear.
Form is the ultimate gift that love can offer-
The vital union of necessity
With all that we desire, all that we suffer.
A too-compassionate art is half an art.
Only such proud restraining purity
Restores the else-betrayed, too-human heart.
Other Adrienne Rich songs:
all Adrienne Rich songs all songs from 1951