The Star in the West

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 .