In words, to live again in looks, which dart Our breath shall intermix, our bosoms bound, The soul that burns between them, and the wells Which boil under our being's inmost cells, grew, Till like two meteors of expanding flame, Those spheres instinct with it become the same, Touch, mingle, are transfigured; ever still In one another's substance finding food, To nourish their bright lives with baser prey, Which point to Heaven and cannot pass away: One hope within two wills, one will beneath The winged words on which my soul would pierce Into the height of love's rare Universe, Are chains of lead around its flight of fire — I pant, I sink, I tremble, I expire! Weak Verses, go, kneel at your Sovereign's feet, And say: "We are the masters of thy slave; What wouldest thou with us and ours and thine?" Then call your sisters from Oblivion's cave, All singing loud: "Love's very pain is sweet. But its reward is in the world divine Which, if not here, it builds beyond the grave." So shall ye live when I am there. Then haste Over the hearts of men, until ye meet Marina, Vanna, Primus, and the rest, And bid them love each other and be blest: And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves, And come and be my guest, - for I am Love's. H ERE, my dear friend, is a new book for you; I have already dedicated two To other friends, one female and What you are is a thing that I must veil; And all the rest, though fair and wise, commend To cold oblivion - though 'tis in the code Of modern morals, and the beaten road Which those poor slaves with weary footsteps tread Who travel to their home among the dead By the broad highway of the world—and so With one sad friend, and many a jealous foe, The dreariest and the longest journey go. Free love has this, different from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away. Like ocean, which the general north wind breaks Into ten thousand waves, and each one makes ; If I were one whom the loud world held wise, I should disdain to quote authorities |