Robert Browning

“ All, for a purpose of hate, re-framed, re-fashioned, refitted
Till, consummate at length, — lo, the employment of sense!
Pain's mere minister now to the soul, once pledged to her pleasure —
Soul, if untrammeled by flesh, unapprehensive of pain!
Body, professed soul's slave, which serving beguiled and betrayed her,
Made things false seem true, cheated thro' eye and thro' ear, ⁠20
Lured thus heart and brain to believe in the lying reported, —
Spurn but the traitrous slave, uttermost atom, away,
What should obstruct soul's rush on the real, the only apparent? ”

“ Summoned to enter their circle, I sat — their equal, how other?
Love should be absolute love, faith is in fulness or nought.
"I am thy friend, be mine!" smiled Zeus: "If Heré attract thee,"
Blushed the imperial cheek, "then — as thy heart may suggest!" ”

“ Here the revenge of a God, there the amends of a Man.
Whirling forever in torment, flesh once mortal, immortal
Made — for a purpose of hate — able to die and revive,
Pays to the uttermost pang, then, newly for payment replenished,
Doles out — old yet young — agonies ever afresh ”