Poetry Friday II - God the Most

And next is this one from Christina Rossetti, believed to have been written after she called off an engagement to Charles Cayley, for reason of "religious differences". English online interestingly writes "Rossetti's definition of Christianity was narrower and more evangelical than most people's". This is part of larger sonnet series called Monna Innominata, which is worth reading in it's entirety.

Or puoi la quantitate

Comprender de l'amor che a te mi scalda. (Dante)

Non vo' che da tal nodo mi scioglia. (Petrarca)

Trust me, I have not earn'd your dear rebuke,

I love, as you would have me, God the most;

Would lose not Him, but you, must one be lost,

Nor with Lot's wife cast back a faithless look

Unready to forego what I forsook;

This say I, having counted up the cost,

This, though I be the feeblest of God's host,

The sorriest sheep Christ shepherds with His crook.

Yet while I love my God the most, I deem

That I can never love you overmuch;

I love Him more, so let me love you too;

Yea, as I apprehend it, love is such

I cannot love you if I love not Him,

I cannot love Him if I love not you.