IV
We knew enough to wake to choral rapture
All answering Nature: I will swear the sun
Came out; you saw the moulting trees recapture
Their plumage, and the green destroy the dun.
Nothing could jar; the British workman took
A kindly interest in our kind caresses;
The loafing nursemaid and the musing cook
Agreed with us entirely. Love impresses
Its seal upon the world; is skilled to wake
The sympathy of everything that lives.
Kindliness flows, not venom, from the snake;
The trodden worm dies duly — but forgives.
The cabman asked four shillings for the job,
And almost boggled at my glad ten bob! °
— 54—
Oh! it was rapture and madness once again
To turn our tears to kisses brimming over
The mouths that never were too wide and fain
For lover to hold intercourse with lover.
Ah! we were owls of dusk to doubt the light,
Bats to mistrust the Wolf's tail’s holy warning:
’’ Sorrow endureth maybe for a night,
But joy most surely cometh in the morning ”.
Joy, ay! what joy poured straight from the high treasure,
The inexhaustible treasure of delight
The gods have poured us, pouring overmeasure
Because we love with all our life and might.
Believe me, it is better than ali prayers
To show the gods our love surpasses theirs !