Now!

Out of your whole life give but a moment!

All of your life that has gone before,

All to come after it,--so you ignore,

So you make perfect the present; condense,

In a rapture of rage, for perfection's endowment,

Thought and feeling and soul and sense,

Merged in a moment which gives me at last

You around me for once, you beneath me, above me--

Me, sure that, despite of time future, time past,

This tick of life-time's one moment you love me!

How long such suspension may linger? Ah, Sweet,

The moment eternal--just that and no more--

When ecstasy's utmost we clutch at the core,

While cheeks burn, arms open, eyes shut, and lips meet!

Robert Browning