THE VIRGIN
79
who is not
her
legal
husband , so
much
deeper
the
lesson , so much
vaster
the
love ; defying
all
for
its
own sake
:
and here
,
as
we shall
see
in
the end
,
sacri
fices itself
,
so
as
not
to
tarnish the names
of
innocent
children
,
which
the old harridan Society would other
wise have besmirched
with
her foul saliva
.
In
“
Mes
saline
we however
have
,
as
the poet
says
“
leprous
entanglements
of
sense
"
;
here
is
a
magnificent
pas
sage heated with passion
and not
a
little lust
:
Breast
to
great breast and thigh
to
thigh
,
We look
,
and strain
,
and laugh
,
and die
.
I
see the head hovering
above
To swoop for cruelty
or
love
;
I
feel the swollen
veins below
The knotted
throat
,
the ebb and flow
Of blood
,
not milk
,
in
breasts
of
fire
;
Of deaths
,
not fluctuants
,
of
desire
;
Of molten
lava that abides
Deep
in
the vast volcanic
sides
;
Deep scars
where
kisses once bit
in
Below young mountains
that
be
twin
,
Stigmata
cruciform
of
sin
,
The diary
of
Messaline
.'
A
little further
on
-
before the sonnets
commence
another
poem greets our gaze and charms
our senses
,
it
is
called
“
Margaret
":
The
moon spans Heaven's
architrave
;
Stars
in
the deep are set
;
Written
in
gold
on
the day's
grave
,
“
To love
,
and
to
forget
;”
And sea
-
winds
whisper
o'er the wave
The name
of
Margaret
.”
In
these two short poems
we have the spirit
of
Alice
offered
us
,
passionate
and
sublime
;
a
harmonious
·
Alice
,
an
Adultery
,
vol
.
ii,
p
.
63
.
2
Ibid
.