Nor Gods infliction, nor deaths neighborhood,

In perfect, purple state; since when, indeed,

Should set a sculptured porpoise, gills a-snort

When we met first and loved, I did not build

Than that first kiss. The second passed in height

Pardon, oh, pardon, that my soul should make,

Thy worthiest love to a worthless counterfeit:

Upon the event with marble. Could it mean

Slow to world-greetings, quick with its Oh, list,

And ever since, it grew more clean and white,

Formed of the sand, and fit to shift and break.

N九九藏书网othing repels thee, . . . Dearest, teach me so

The shell is over-smooth,—and not so much

Slips on the nut if, after frequent showers,

The fingers of this hand wherewith I write;

XXXVII

And think it soon when others cry Too late.

As an unowned thing, once the lips being cold.

Nor all which others viewing, turn to go,

Will turn the thing called love, aside to hate

A lover, my Beloved! thou canst wait

I have heard love talked in my early youth,

Because thou hast the faith and love to see,

The onward path, and feared to overlean

XXXVIII

And Love, be false! if he, to keep one oath,

Sorrow and sorrow? Nay, I rather thrilled,

Because thou hast the power and ownst the grace

A still renewable fear . . . O love, O troth . . .

I will not gainsay love, called love forsooth.

The patient angel waiting for a place

This mutual kiss drop down between us both

Lest these enclasped hands should never hold,

And vibrant tail, within the temple-gate.

Of all that strong divineness which I know

It is that distant years which did not take

XXXVI

Have forced my swimming brain to undergo

Oh, yes! they love through all this world of ours!

The first, and sought the forehead, and half missed,

To look through and behind this mask of me

A finger even. And, though I have grown serene

XL

The dim and weary witness of lifes race,—

The third upon my lips was folded down

Or else to oblivion. But thou art not such

For thine and thee, an image only so

And since, not so long back but that the flowers

XXXIX

I have been proud and said, My love, my own.

That 九-九-藏-书-网was the chrism of love, which loves own crown,

His guardian sea-god to commemorate,

And strong since then, I think that God has willed

Thy sovranty, recoiling with a blow,

For any weeping. Polyphemes white tooth

In the new Heavens,—because nor sin nor woe,

As if a shipwrecked Pagan, safe in port,

Thy purity of likeness and distort

(Against which years have beat thus blanchingly

With their rains), and behold my souls true face,

Nor all which makes me tired of all, self-viewed,—

Must lose one joy, by his lifes star foretold.

Thr99lib•netough sorrow and sickness, to bring souls to touch,

With sanctifying sweetness, did precede.

To pour out gratitude, as thou dost, good!

First time he kissed me, he but only kissed

Their doubt and dread, and blindly to forsake

I could not wear here, plainer to my sight,

Then gathered, smell still. Mussulmans and Giaours

To last, a love set pendulous between

Half falling on the hair. O beyond meed!

Through that same souls distracting lethargy,

Throw kerchiefs at a smile, and have no ruth

When the angels speak. A ring of amethyst

Distrusting every light that seemed to gild