| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | IV. “Love is that orbit of the restless soul” | | By George Henry Boker (1823–1890) |
| | | LOVE is that orbit of the restless soul | |
| Whose circle grazes the confines of space, | |
| Bounding within the limits of its race | |
| Utmost extremes; whose high and topmost pole | |
| Within the very blaze of heaven doth roll; | 5 |
| Whose nether course is through the darkest place | |
| Eclipsed by hell. What daring hand shall trace | |
| The blended joys and sorrows that control | |
| A heart whose journeys the fixed hand of Fate | |
| Points through this pathway? Who may soar so high,— | 10 |
| Behold such glories with unwinking eye? | |
| Who drop so low beneath his mortal state, | |
| And thence return with careful chart and date, | |
| To mark which way another’s course must lie? | | | | |
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