• Some ladies love the jewels in Love's zone
• And gold-tipped darts he hath for painless play
• In idle scornful hours he flings away;
• And some that listen to his lute's soft tone
• Do love to vaunt the silver praise their own;
• Some prize his blindfold sight; and there be they
• Who kissed his wings which brought him yester-
• day
• And thank his wings to-day that he is flown.

• My lady only loves the heart of Love:
• 10 Therefore Love's heart, my lady, hath for thee
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• His bower of unimagined flower and tree:
• There kneels he now, and all-anhungered of
• Thine eyes grey-lit in shadowing hair above,
• Seals with thy mouth his immortality.

   

• One flame-winged brought a white-winged harp—
• player
• Even where my lady and I lay all alone;
• Saying: “Behold, this minstrel is unknown;
• Bid him depart, for I am minstrel here:
• Only my strains are to Love's dear ones dear.”
• Then said I: “Through thine hautboy's rap-
• turous tone
• Unto my lady still this harp makes moan,
• And still she deems the cadence deep and clear.”

• Then said my lady: “Thou art Passion of Love,
• 10 And this Love's Worship: both he plights to me.
• Thy mastering music walks the sunlit sea:
• But where wan water trembles in the grove
• And the wan moon is all the light thereof,
• This harp still makes my name its voluntary.”

   

• O Lord of all compassionate control,
• O Love! let this my lady's picture glow
• Under my hand to praise her name, and show
• Even of her inner self the perfect whole:
• That he who seeks her beauty's furthest goal,
• Beyond the light that the sweet glances throw
• And refluent wave of the sweet smile, may know
• The very sky and sea-line of her soul.

• Lo! it is done. Above the enthroning throat
• 10 The mouth's mould testifies of voice and kiss,
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• The shadowed eyes remember and foresee.
• Her face is made her shrine. Let all men note
• That in all years (O Love, thy gift is this!)
• They that would look on her must come to me.

   

• Warmed by her hand and shadowed by her hair
• As close she leaned and poured her heart through
• thee,
• Whereof the articulate throbs accompany
• The smooth black stream that makes thy whiteness
• fair,—
• Sweet fluttering sheet, even of her breath aware,—
• Oh let thy silent song disclose to me
• That soul wherewith her lips and eyes agree
• Like married music in Love's answering air.

• Fain had I watched her when, at some fond thought,
• 10 Her bosom to the writing closelier press'd,
• And her breast's secrets peered into her breast;
• When, through eyes raised an instant, her soul
• sought
• My soul, and from the sudden confluence caught
• The words that made her love the loveliest.

   

• Sweet twining hedgeflowers wind-stirred in no wise
• On this June day; and hand that clings in
• hand:—
• Still glades; and meeting faces scarcely fann'd:—
• An osier-odoured stream that draws the skies
• Deep to its heart; and mirrored eyes in eyes:—
• Fresh hourly wonder o'er the Summer land
• Of light and cloud; and two souls softly spann'd
• With one o'erarching heaven of smiles and sighs:—

• Even such their path, whose bodies lean unto
• 10 Each other's visible sweetness amorously,—
page: 186  
• Whose passionate hearts lean by Love's high
• decree
• Together on his heart for ever true,
• As the cloud-foaming firmamental blue
• Rest on the blue line of a foamless sea.

   

• “I love you, sweet: how can you ever learn
• How much I love you?” “You I love even so,
• And so I learn it.” “Sweet, you cannot know
• How fair you are.” “If fair enough to earn
• Your love, so much is all my love's concern.”
• “My love grows hourly, sweet.” “Mine too doth
• grow,
• Yet love seemed full so many hours ago!”
• Thus lovers speak, till kisses claim their turn.

• Ah! happy they to whom such words as these
• 10 In youth have served for speech the whole day long,
page: 188  
• Hour after hour, remote from the world's throng,
• Work, contest, fame, all life's confederate pleas,—
• What while Love breathed in sighs and silences
• Through two blent souls one rapturous undersong.

   

• On this sweet bank your head thrice sweet and dear
• I lay, and spread your hair on either side,
• And see the newborn woodflowers bashful-eyed
• Look through the golden tresses here and there.
• On these debateable borders of the year
• Spring's foot half falters; scarce she yet may know
• The leafless blackthorn-blossom from the snow;
• And through her bowers the wind's way still is clear.

• But April's Sun strikes down the glades to-day;
• 10 So shut your eyes upturned, and feel my kiss
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• Creep, as the Spring now thrills through every spray,
• Up your warm throat to your warm lips: for this
• Is even the hour of Love's sworn suitservice,
• With whom cold hearts are counted castaway.

   

• Have you not noted, in some family
• Where two were born of a first marriage-bed,
• How still they own their gracious bond, though fed
• And nursed on the forgotten breast and knee?—
• How to their father's children they shall be
• In act and thought of one goodwill; but each
• Shall for the other have, in silence speech,
• And in a word complete community?

• Even so, when first I saw you, seemed it, love,
• 10 That among souls allied to mine was yet
page: 192  
• One nearer kindred than life hinted of.
• O born with me somewhere that men forget,
• And though in years of sight and sound unmet,
• Known for my soul's birth-partner well enough!