XI. May not liking be so simple-sweet, If love grew there 'T would undo there All that breaks the cheek to dimples sweet? XII. Is the creature too imperfect, say? And so end it? Since not all addition perfects aye! XIII. Or is it of its kind, perhaps, Whence, rejection Of a grace not to its mind, perhaps? XIV. Shall we burn up, tread that face at once Into tinder, And so hinder Sparks from kindling all the place at once? XV. Or else kiss away one's soul on her? Your love-fancies! -A sick man sees Truer, when his hot eyes roll on her! XVI. Thus the craftsman thinks to grace the rose,— Plucks a mould-flower For his gold flower, Uses fine things that efface the rose: XVII. Rosy rubies make its cup more rose, Ape the petals, Last, some old king locks it up, morose! XVIII. Then how grace a rose? I know a way! Must you gather? Smell, kiss, wear it—at last, throw away! RESPECTABILITY. I. DEAR, had the world in its caprice Deigned to proclaim "I know you both, "Have recognized your plighted troth, "Am sponsor for you: live in peace!"How many precious months and years Of youth had passed, that speed so fast, Before we found it out at last, The world, and what it fears? II. How much of priceless life were spent Society's true ornament,— Ere we dared wander, nights like this, Thro' wind and rain, and watch the Seine, And feel the Boulevard break again To warmth and light and bliss? III. I know! the world proscribes not love; Your lips' contour and downiness, The world's good word!-the Institute! Eh? Down the court three lampions flare: LOVE IN A LIFE. ROOм after room, I hunt the house through We inhabit together. I. Heart, fear nothing, for, heart, thou shalt find her- As she brushed it, the cornice-wreath blossomed anew: Yet the day wears, And door succeeds door; I try the fresh fortune II. Range the wide house from the wing to the centre. ESCAPE me? Never LIFE IN A LOVE. Beloved! While I am I, and you are you, So long as the world contains us both, While the one eludes, must the other pursue. It seems too much like a fate, indeed! To dry one's eyes and laugh at a fall, So the chase takes up one's life, that's all. Than a new one, straight to the self-same mark, I shape me Ever Removed! IN THREE DAYS. I. So, I shall see her in three days And just one night, but nights are short, Feel, where my life broke off from thine, II. Too long, this time of year, the days! III. O loaded curls, release your store When under curl and curl I pried IV. What great fear, should one say, "Three days "That change the world might change as well "Your fortune; and if joy delays, "Be happy that no worse befell!" What small fear, if another says, "Three days and one short night beside “With an end somewhere undescried.” |