The Star in the West

74 THE STAR IN THE WEST With love more perfect, for its purple root Might blossom outward to the snowy fruit Whose bloom to - night lay sleeping on her breast .' True love , the love of self in the soul of another , the poet paints very beautifully in the following charming lines : Do you recall ? Could I forget ? How once the full moon shone above , Over the houses , and we let Loose rein upon the steeds of love ? How kisses fled to kisses , rain Of fiery dew upon the soul Kindled , till ecstasy was pain ; Desire , delight : and swift control Leapt from the lightning , as the cloud Disparted , rended , from us twain , And we were one :2 This melting of the I in you , is the only true possible form of marriage , and the only form that can exalt it over the prostitution of the monde and demi - monde ; for it matters little if a woman sell her body for a five pound note , or for a five million pound dot . The man who in his turn marries a woman for her wealth is as foul a male prostitute as ever shrieked his lewd obscenities in the street of Sodom , and down the by ways of Gibeah . Tannhäuser expresses the whole celebration of this union in two pregnant lines : That is true marriage , in my estimate . Aspire together to one Deity ? Yes !3 Or again in the song of Nuith : 1 Mysteries : Lyrical and Dramatic , vol . i, p . 94 . 2 Star and Garter , vol . iii, p . 13 . 3 Tannhäuser , vol . i, p . 259 . -