love poem

A LOVE SECRET

Love has its secrets, joy has it revealings.
How shall I speak of that which love has hid?
If my beloved shall return to greet me,
Deeds shall be done for her none ever did.

My beloved loved me. How shall I reveal it?
We were alone that morning in the street.
She looked down at the ground, and blushed, and trembled.
She stopped me with her eyes when these did meet.

An Allegoric Romance

Like a lone Arab, old and blind,
Some caravan had left behind,
Who sits beside a ruin'd well,
Where the shy sand-asps bask and swell;
And now he hangs his aged head aslant,
And listens for a human sound — in vain!
And now the aid, which Heaven alone can grant,
Upturns his eyeless face from Heaven to gain; —
Even thus, in vacant mood, one sultry hour,
Resting my eye upon a drooping plant,

Love flies with bow unstrung when Time appears,
And trembles at the approach of heavy years.
A few bright feathers leaves he in his flight,
Quite beyond call, but not forgotten quite.

VOL. 2, C ANTIQUE 135

Love ! if thy destin'd sacrifice am I,
Come, slay thy victim, and prepare thy fires;
Plung'd in thy depths of mercy, let me die
The death, which every soul that lives desires!

I watch my hours, and see them fleet away;
The time is long, that I have languish'd here;
Yet all my thoughts thy purposes obey,
With no reluctance, cheerful and sincere.

I paintedrouge on my lips,
and kissed the trunk of a new birch,
even if I were a handsome man,
on my chest are no breasts likerubber balls,
from my skin rises no fragrance of finetexturedpowder,
I am a wizened man of ill fate,
ah, what a pitiable man,
in today's balmy early summer field,
in a stand of glistening trees,
I slipped on my hands sky blue gloves,
put around my waist something like acorset,
smeared on my nape something like nape powder,
thus hushed assuming a coquettishpose,
as young girls do,

"Love me, for I love you"--and answer me,
"Love me, for I love you": so shall we stand
As happy equals in the flowering land
Of love, that knows not a dividing sea.
Love builds the house on rock and not on sand,
Love laughs what while the winds rave desperately;
And who hath found love's citadel unmanned?
And who hath held in bonds love's liberty?--
My heart's a coward though my words are brave--
We meet so seldom, yet we surely part
So often; there's a problem for your art!
Still I find comfort in his Book who saith,

Language has not the power to speak what love indites:
The Soul lies buried in the ink that writes.

I dream'd we both were in a bed
Of Roses, almost smothered:
The warmth and sweetnes had me there
Made lovingly familiar:
But that I heard thy sweet breath say,
Faults done by night, will blush by day:
I kist thee (panting,) and I call
Night to the Record! that was all.
But ah! if empty dreames so please,
Love, give me more such nights as these.

I do not love to wed,
Though I do like to woo;
And for a maidenhead
I'll beg and buy it too.

I'll praise and I'll approve
Those maids that never vary;
And fervently I'll love,
But yet I would not marry.

I'll hug, I'll kiss, I'll play,
And, cock-like, hens I'll tread,
And sport in any way
But in the bridal bed.

For why? that man is poor
Who hath but one of many,
But crown'd he is with store
That, single, may have many.

Why, then, say what is he,
To freedom so unknown,

I bring ye love, Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Like, and dislike ye:
I bring ye love: Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Stroake ye to strike ye.
I bring ye love: Quest. What will Love do?
Ans. Love will be-foole ye:
I bring ye love: Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Heate ye to coole ye:
I bring ye love: Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Love gifts will send ye:
I bring ye love: Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Stock ye to spend ye:
I bring ye love: Quest. What will love do?
Ans. Love will fulfill ye: