ONE hour to madness and joy!
O furious! O confine me not!
(What is this that frees me so in storms?
What do my shouts amid lightnings and raging winds 
mean?)

O to drink the mystic deliria deeper than any other 
man!
O savage and tender achings!
(I bequeath them to you, my children,
I tell them to you, for reasons, O bridegroom and 
bride.)

O to be yielded to you, whoever you are, and you to be 
yielded to me, in
defiance of the world!
O to return to Paradise! O bashful and feminine!
O to draw you to me—to plant on you for the first time 
the lips of a
determin'd man!

O the puzzle—the thrice-tied knot—the deep and dark 
pool! O all untied
and illumin'd!
O to speed where there is space enough and air enough 
at last!
from mine, and you
from yours!
O to find a new unthought-of nonchalance with the best 
of nature!
O to have the gag remov'd from one's mouth!
O to have the feeling, to-day or any day, I am 
sufficient as I am!

O something unprov'd! something in a trance!
O madness amorous! O trembling!
O to escape utterly from others' anchors and holds!
To drive free! to love free! to dash reckless and 
dangerous!
To court destruction with taunts—with invitations!
To ascend—to leap to the heavens of the love indicated 
to me!
To rise thither with my inebriate Soul!
To be lost, if it must be so!
To feed the remainder of life with one hour of fulness 
and freedom!
With one brief hour of madness and joy.