"Heaven itself is but the casket
For Love's treasure, ere he ask it, --
Ere with burning heart he follow,
Piercing through corruption's hollow."
The narrator of this poem is laying out how love and being loved with save a person from suffering in life, and apparently also in death. In this excerpt the very idea of death is supposed to be inferior to the power of love, allowing the beloved to cross over and remain beside his lover. Or perhaps the lover here is not literal, but a personification of love itself, attributed with volition and power beyond the normal association of intangible concepts.
"Although his prayer the Muses bless,
The poet doth require
That ye, in frolic gentleness,
Should stand beside his lyre."
The poet mentioned here is the narrator. He is calling upon his personal muse to supplement the blessing of the traditional Muses. In order to write, he demands her presence, the simplicity and grace which she adds to his perspective.
"I leave a page half-write --
The work begun
Will be to heaven's conception done,
If she come to it."
The author calls for his subject to finish the poem. As a demonstration of his and her intimacy, he desires her to add her voice to his, to collaborate. Even if she just looks at the page, he imagine it will be finished.
"My soul draws to its breast; her sobbing
Is for the warm dark there!
In the heat of her wings I would not care
My close-housed bird should take her flight
To magnify our love."
Attempting to strike a balance between adoration and self-sufficiency, though not for its own sake, the narrator boasts about his lover's liberty. With him she knows that she will find consolation and safety, so, like a bird, she is free to do as she please. The narrator asserts that he feels no fear at letting her take flight because it would be the best demonstration of the genuineness of their love.
