Page:Love in Hindu Literature.djvu/77

 LOVE IN HINDU LITERATURE. 63

expressed by the American Shelley, Walt Whitman, who was " a rebel in his message " and " a rebel in his art : " This moment yearning and thoughtful sitting alone. It seems to me there are other men in other lands yearning and thoughtful, It seems to me I can look over and behold them in Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Or far, far away, in China, or in Russia or Japan, talking other dialects, And it seems to me if I could know these men I should become attached to them as I do to men in my own lands, I know we should be brethren and lovers, 1 know I should be happy with them."

The Vidyapatis, Rossettis, Whitmans and Schillers of the world would thus know one other at first glance, because they have been forged into shape and being at the same anvil under the same thermal energy.

Vidyapati is not a Hindu, nor is Whitman a Yankee so long as they are idealists or mystics, i.e., souls in flames. Let us feel a bit of this American spark: " O hymen, O hymenee ! Why do you tantalise me thus ? O why sting me for a swift moment only ? Why can you not continue ? O why do you now cease ? Is it because if you continued beyond the swift moment you would soon certainly kill me ? " Again, " I am he that aches with amorous love ; Does the earth gravitate ? does not all matter, aching, attract all matter ? So the body of me to all I meet or know."