A veil for our seclusion, close as Night's, 560 Our breath shall intermix, our bosoms bound, 565 And our veins beat together; and our lips, With other eloquence than words, eclipse The soul that burns between them; and the wells Which boil under our being's inmost cells, The fountains of our deepest life, shall be 570 As mountain-springs under the morning Sun. One passion in twin-hearts, which grows and grew, 575 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, 580 585 And one annihilation. Woe is me! The winged words on which my soul would pierce 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, 590 595 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 600 Marina, Vanna, Primus, and the rest, And bid them love each other and be bless'd: And leave the troop which errs, and which reproves, ΤΟ MUSIC, when soft voices die, Odours, when sweet violets sicken, Rose-leaves, when the rose is dead, And so thy thoughts, when thou art gone, 1821. 5 |