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Best Famous Unceasingly Poems

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Written by Edwin Arlington Robinson | Create an image from this poem

London Bridge

 “Do I hear them? Yes, I hear the children singing—and what of it? 
Have you come with eyes afire to find me now and ask me that? 
If I were not their father and if you were not their mother, 
We might believe they made a noise…. What are you—driving at!” 

“Well, be glad that you can hear them, and be glad they are so near us,— 
For I have heard the stars of heaven, and they were nearer still. 
All within an hour it is that I have heard them calling, 
And though I pray for them to cease, I know they never will; 
For their music on my heart, though you may freeze it, will fall always, 
Like summer snow that never melts upon a mountain-top.
Do you hear them? Do you hear them overhead—the children—singing? 
Do you hear the children singing?… God, will you make them stop!” 

“And what now in His holy name have you to do with mountains? 
We’re back to town again, my dear, and we’ve a dance tonight. 
Frozen hearts and falling music? Snow and stars, and—what the devil!
Say it over to me slowly, and be sure you have it right.” 

“God knows if I be right or wrong in saying what I tell you, 
Or if I know the meaning any more of what I say. 
All I know is, it will kill me if I try to keep it hidden— 
Well, I met him…. Yes, I met him, and I talked with him—today.”

“You met him? Did you meet the ghost of someone you had poisoned, 
Long ago, before I knew you for the woman that you are? 
Take a chair; and don’t begin your stories always in the middle. 
Was he man, or was he demon? Anyhow, you’ve gone too far 
To go back, and I’m your servant. I’m the lord, but you’re the master.
Now go on with what you know, for I’m excited.” 

“Do you mean— 
Do you mean to make me try to think that you know less than I do?” 

“I know that you foreshadow the beginning of a scene. 
Pray be careful, and as accurate as if the doors of heaven
Were to swing or to stay bolted from now on for evermore.” 

“Do you conceive, with all your smooth contempt of every feeling, 
Of hiding what you know and what you must have known before? 
Is it worth a woman’s torture to stand here and have you smiling, 
With only your poor fetish of possession on your side?
No thing but one is wholly sure, and that’s not one to scare me; 
When I meet it I may say to God at last that I have tried. 
And yet, for all I know, or all I dare believe, my trials 
Henceforward will be more for you to bear than are your own; 
And you must give me keys of yours to rooms I have not entered.
Do you see me on your threshold all my life, and there alone? 
Will you tell me where you see me in your fancy—when it leads you 
Far enough beyond the moment for a glance at the abyss?” 

“Will you tell me what intrinsic and amazing sort of nonsense 
You are crowding on the patience of the man who gives you—this?
Look around you and be sorry you’re not living in an attic, 
With a civet and a fish-net, and with you to pay the rent. 
I say words that you can spell without the use of all your letters; 
And I grant, if you insist, that I’ve a guess at what you meant.” 

“Have I told you, then, for nothing, that I met him? Are you trying
To be merry while you try to make me hate you?” 

“Think again, 
My dear, before you tell me, in a language unbecoming 
To a lady, what you plan to tell me next. If I complain, 
If I seem an atom peevish at the preference you mention—
Or imply, to be precise—you may believe, or you may not, 
That I’m a trifle more aware of what he wants than you are. 
But I shouldn’t throw that at you. Make believe that I forgot. 
Make believe that he’s a genius, if you like,—but in the meantime 
Don’t go back to rocking-horses. There, there, there, now.”

“Make believe! 
When you see me standing helpless on a plank above a whirlpool, 
Do I drown, or do I hear you when you say it? Make believe? 
How much more am I to say or do for you before I tell you 
That I met him! What’s to follow now may be for you to choose.
Do you hear me? Won’t you listen? It’s an easy thing to listen….” 

“And it’s easy to be crazy when there’s everything to lose.” 
“If at last you have a notion that I mean what I am saying, 
Do I seem to tell you nothing when I tell you I shall try? 
If you save me, and I lose him—I don’t know—it won’t much matter.
I dare say that I’ve lied enough, but now I do not lie.” 

“Do you fancy me the one man who has waited and said nothing 
While a wife has dragged an old infatuation from a tomb? 
Give the thing a little air and it will vanish into ashes. 
There you are—piff! presto!”

“When I came into this room, 
It seemed as if I saw the place, and you there at your table, 
As you are now at this moment, for the last time in my life; 
And I told myself before I came to find you, ‘I shall tell him, 
If I can, what I have learned of him since I became his wife.’
And if you say, as I’ve no doubt you will before I finish, 
That you have tried unceasingly, with all your might and main, 
To teach me, knowing more than I of what it was I needed, 
Don’t think, with all you may have thought, that you have tried in vain; 
For you have taught me more than hides in all the shelves of knowledge
Of how little you found that’s in me and was in me all along. 
I believed, if I intruded nothing on you that I cared for, 
I’d be half as much as horses,—and it seems that I was wrong; 
I believed there was enough of earth in me, with all my nonsense 
Over things that made you sleepy, to keep something still awake;
But you taught me soon to read my book, and God knows I have read it— 
Ages longer than an angel would have read it for your sake. 
I have said that you must open other doors than I have entered, 
But I wondered while I said it if I might not be obscure. 
Is there anything in all your pedigrees and inventories
With a value more elusive than a dollar’s? Are you sure 
That if I starve another year for you I shall be stronger 
To endure another like it—and another—till I’m dead?” 

“Has your tame cat sold a picture?—or more likely had a windfall? 
Or for God’s sake, what’s broke loose? Have you a bee-hive in your head?
A little more of this from you will not be easy hearing 
Do you know that? Understand it, if you do; for if you won’t…. 
What the devil are you saying! Make believe you never said it, 
And I’ll say I never heard it…. Oh, you…. If you….” 

“If I don’t?”
“There are men who say there’s reason hidden somewhere in a woman, 
But I doubt if God himself remembers where the key was hung.” 

“He may not; for they say that even God himself is growing. 
I wonder if He makes believe that He is growing young; 
I wonder if He makes believe that women who are giving
All they have in holy loathing to a stranger all their lives 
Are the wise ones who build houses in the Bible….” 

“Stop—you devil!” 
“…Or that souls are any whiter when their bodies are called wives. 
If a dollar’s worth of gold will hoop the walls of hell together,
Why need heaven be such a ruin of a place that never was? 
And if at last I lied my starving soul away to nothing, 
Are you sure you might not miss it? Have you come to such a pass 
That you would have me longer in your arms if you discovered 
That I made you into someone else…. Oh!…Well, there are worse ways.
But why aim it at my feet—unless you fear you may be sorry…. 
There are many days ahead of you.” 

“I do not see those days.” 
“I can see them. Granted even I am wrong, there are the children. 
And are they to praise their father for his insight if we die?
Do you hear them? Do you hear them overhead—the children—singing? 
Do you hear them? Do you hear the children?” 
“Damn the children!” 

“Why? 
What have they done?…Well, then,—do it…. Do it now, and have it over.”
“Oh, you devil!…Oh, you….” 

“No, I’m not a devil, I’m a prophet— 
One who sees the end already of so much that one end more 
Would have now the small importance of one other small illusion, 
Which in turn would have a welcome where the rest have gone before.
But if I were you, my fancy would look on a little farther 
For the glimpse of a release that may be somewhere still in sight. 
Furthermore, you must remember those two hundred invitations 
For the dancing after dinner. We shall have to shine tonight. 
We shall dance, and be as happy as a pair of merry spectres,
On the grave of all the lies that we shall never have to tell; 
We shall dance among the ruins of the tomb of our endurance, 
And I have not a doubt that we shall do it very well. 
There!—I’m glad you’ve put it back; for I don’t like it. Shut the drawer now. 
No—no—don’t cancel anything. I’ll dance until I drop.
I can’t walk yet, but I’m going to…. Go away somewhere, and leave me…. 
Oh, you children! Oh, you children!…God, will they never stop!”


Written by Edwin Arlington Robinson | Create an image from this poem

Late Summer

 (ALCAICS)


Confused, he found her lavishing feminine 
Gold upon clay, and found her inscrutable; 
And yet she smiled. Why, then, should horrors 
Be as they were, without end, her playthings? 

And why were dead years hungrily telling her 
Lies of the dead, who told them again to her? 
If now she knew, there might be kindness 
Clamoring yet where a faith lay stifled. 

A little faith in him, and the ruinous 
Past would be for time to annihilate,
And wash out, like a tide that washes 
Out of the sand what a child has drawn there. 

God, what a shining handful of happiness, 
Made out of days and out of eternities, 
Were now the pulsing end of patience—
Could he but have what a ghost had stolen! 

What was a man before him, or ten of them, 
While he was here alive who could answer them, 
And in their teeth fling confirmations 
Harder than agates against an egg-shell?

But now the man was dead, and would come again 
Never, though she might honor ineffably 
The flimsy wraith of him she conjured 
Out of a dream with his wand of absence. 

And if the truth were now but a mummery,
Meriting pride’s implacable irony, 
So much the worse for pride. Moreover, 
Save her or fail, there was conscience always. 

Meanwhile, a few misgivings of innocence, 
Imploring to be sheltered and credited,
Were not amiss when she revealed them. 
Whether she struggled or not, he saw them. 

Also, he saw that while she was hearing him 
Her eyes had more and more of the past in them; 
And while he told what cautious honor
Told him was all he had best be sure of, 

He wondered once or twice, inadvertently, 
Where shifting winds were driving his argosies, 
Long anchored and as long unladen, 
Over the foam for the golden chances.

“If men were not for killing so carelessly, 
And women were for wiser endurances,” 
He said, “we might have yet a world here 
Fitter for Truth to be seen abroad in; 

“If Truth were not so strange in her nakedness,
And we were less forbidden to look at it, 
We might not have to look.” He stared then 
Down at the sand where the tide threw forward 

Its cold, unconquered lines, that unceasingly 
Foamed against hope, and fell. He was calm enough,
Although he knew he might be silenced 
Out of all calm; and the night was coming. 

“I climb for you the peak of his infamy 
That you may choose your fall if you cling to it. 
No more for me unless you say more.
All you have left of a dream defends you: 

“The truth may be as evil an augury 
As it was needful now for the two of us. 
We cannot have the dead between us. 
Tell me to go, and I go.”—She pondered:

“What you believe is right for the two of us 
Makes it as right that you are not one of us. 
If this be needful truth you tell me, 
Spare me, and let me have lies hereafter.” 

She gazed away where shadows were covering
The whole cold ocean’s healing indifference. 
No ship was coming. When the darkness 
Fell, she was there, and alone, still gazing.
Written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Create an image from this poem

Dedication

 The morn arrived; his footstep quickly scared

The gentle sleep that round my senses clung,
And I, awak'ning, from my cottage fared,

And up the mountain side with light heart sprung;
At every step I felt my gaze ensnared

By new-born flow'rs that full of dew-drops hung;
The youthful day awoke with ecstacy,
And all things quicken'd were, to quicken me.

And as I mounted, from the valley rose

A streaky mist, that upward slowly spread,
Then bent, as though my form it would enclose,

Then, as on pinions, soar'd above my head:
My gaze could now on no fair view repose,

in mournful veil conceal'd, the world seem'd dead;
The clouds soon closed around me, as a tomb,
And I was left alone in twilight gloom.

At once the sun his lustre seem'd to pour,

And through the mist was seen a radiant light;
Here sank it gently to the ground once more,

There parted it, and climb'd o'er wood and height.
How did I yearn to greet him as of yore,

After the darkness waxing doubly bright!
The airy conflict ofttimes was renew'd,
Then blinded by a dazzling glow I stood.

Ere long an inward impulse prompted me

A hasty glance with boldness round to throw;
At first mine eyes had scarcely strength to see,

For all around appear'd to burn and glow.
Then saw I, on the clouds borne gracefully,

A godlike woman hov'ring to and fro.
In life I ne'er had seen a form so fair--
She gazed at me, and still she hover'd there.

"Dost thou not know me?" were the words she said

In tones where love and faith were sweetly bound;
"Knowest thou not Her who oftentimes hath shed

The purest balsam in each earthly wound?
Thou knows't me well; thy panting heart I led

To join me in a bond with rapture crown'd.
Did I not see thee, when a stripling, yearning
To welcome me with tears, heartfelt and burning?"

"Yes!" I exclaim'd, whilst, overcome with joy,

I sank to earth; "I long have worshipp'd thee;
Thou gav'st me rest, when passions rack'd the boy,

Pervading ev'ry limb unceasingly;
Thy heav'nly pinions thou didst then employ

The scorching sunbeams to ward off from me.
From thee alone Earth's fairest gifts I gain'd,
Through thee alone, true bliss can be obtain'd.

"Thy name I know not; yet I hear thee nam'd

By many a one who boasts thee as his own;
Each eye believes that tow'rd thy form 'tis aim'd,

Yet to most eyes thy rays are anguish-sown.
Ah! whilst I err'd, full many a friend I claim'd,

Now that I know thee, I am left alone;
With but myself can I my rapture share,
I needs must veil and hide thy radiance fair.

She smiled, and answering said: "Thou see'st how wise,

How prudent 'twas but little to unveil!
Scarce from the clumsiest cheat are clear'd thine eyes,

Scarce hast thou strength thy childish bars to scale,
When thou dost rank thee 'mongst the deities,

And so man's duties to perform would'st fail!
How dost thou differ from all other men?
Live with the world in peace, and know thee then!"

"Oh, pardon me," I cried, "I meant it well:

Not vainly did'st thou bless mine eyes with light;
For in my blood glad aspirations swell,

The value of thy gifts I know aright!
Those treasures in my breast for others dwell,

The buried pound no more I'll hide from sight.
Why did I seek the road so anxiously,
If hidden from my brethren 'twere to be?"

And as I answer'd, tow'rd me turn'd her face,

With kindly sympathy, that god-like one;
Within her eye full plainly could I trace

What I had fail'd in, and what rightly done.
She smiled, and cured me with that smile's sweet grace,

To new-born joys my spirit soar'd anon;
With inward confidence I now could dare
To draw yet closer, and observe her there.

Through the light cloud she then stretch'd forth her hand,

As if to bid the streaky vapour fly:
At once it seemed to yield to her command,

Contracted, and no mist then met mine eye.
My glance once more survey'd the smiling land,

Unclouded and serene appear'd the sky.
Nought but a veil of purest white she held,
And round her in a thousand folds it swell'd.

"I know thee, and I know thy wav'ring will.

I know the good that lives and glows in thee!"--
Thus spake she, and methinks I hear her still--

"The prize long destined, now receive from me;
That blest one will be safe from ev'ry ill,

Who takes this gift with soul of purity,--"
The veil of Minstrelsy from Truth's own hand,
Of sunlight and of morn's sweet fragrance plann'd.

"And when thou and thy friends at fierce noon-day

Are parched with heat, straight cast it in the air!
Then Zephyr's cooling breath will round you play,

Distilling balm and flowers' sweet incense there;
The tones of earthly woe will die away,

The grave become a bed of clouds so fair,
To sing to rest life's billows will be seen,
The day be lovely, and the night serene."--

Come, then, my friends! and whensoe'er ye find

Upon your way increase life's heavy load;
If by fresh-waken'd blessings flowers are twin'd

Around your path, and golden fruits bestow'd,
We'll seek the coming day with joyous mind!

Thus blest, we'll live, thus wander on our road
And when our grandsons sorrow o'er our tomb,
Our love, to glad their bosoms, still shall bloom.
Written by Amy Lowell | Create an image from this poem

A Fixed Idea

 What torture lurks within a single thought
When grown too constant, and however kind,
However welcome still, the weary mind
Aches with its presence. Dull remembrance taught
Remembers on unceasingly; unsought
The old delight is with us but to find
That all recurring joy is pain refined,
Become a habit, and we struggle, caught.
You lie upon my heart as on a nest,
Folded in peace, for you can never know
How crushed I am with having you at rest
Heavy upon my life. I love you so
You bind my freedom from its rightful quest.
In mercy lift your drooping wings and go.
Written by Francesco Petrarch | Create an image from this poem

Canzone XI.(R)

CANZONE XI.[R]

Mai non vo' più cantar, com' io soleva.

ENIGMAS.

Never more shall I sing, as I have sung:For still she heeded not; and I was scorn'd:So e'en in loveliest spots is trouble found.Unceasingly to sigh is no relief.Already on the Alp snow gathers round:Already day is near; and I awake.An affable and modest air is sweet;And in a lovely lady that she beNoble and dignified, not proud and cold,Well pleases it to find.Love o'er his empire rules without a sword.He who has miss'd his way let him turn back:Who has no home the heath must be his bed:Who lost or has not gold,Will sate his thirst at the clear crystal spring.
I trusted in Saint Peter, not so now;Let him who can my meaning understand.A harsh rule is a heavy weight to bear.[Pg 100]I melt but where I must, and stand alone.I think of him who falling died in Po;Already thence the thrush has pass'd the brookCome, see if I say sooth! No more for me.A rock amid the waters is no joke,Nor birdlime on the twig. Enough my griefWhen a superfluous prideIn a fair lady many virtues hides.There is who answereth without a call;There is who, though entreated, fails and flies:There is who melts 'neath ice:There is who day and night desires his death.
Love who loves you, is an old proverb now.Well know I what I say. But let it pass;'Tis meet, at their own cost, that men should learn.A modest lady wearies her best friend.Good figs are little known. To me it seemsWise to eschew things hazardous and high;In any country one may be at ease.Infinite hope below kills hope above;And I at times e'en thus have been the talk.My brief life that remainsThere is who'll spurn not if to Him devote.I place my trust in Him who rules the world,And who his followers shelters in the wood,That with his pitying crookMe will He guide with his own flock to feed.
Haply not every one who reads discerns;Some set the snare at times who take no spoil;Who strains too much may break the bow in twain.Let not the law be lame when suitors watch.To be at ease we many a mile descend.To-day's great marvel is to-morrow's scorn.A veil'd and virgin loveliness is best.Blessed the key which pass'd within my heart,And, quickening my dull spirit, set it freeFrom its old heavy chain,And from my bosom banish'd many a sigh.Where most I suffer'd once she suffers now;Her equal sorrows mitigate my grief;[Pg 101]Thanks, then, to Love that IFeel it no more, though he is still the same!
In silence words that wary are and wise;The voice which drives from me all other care;And the dark prison which that fair light hides:As midnight on our hills the violets;And the wild beasts within the walls who dwell;The kind demeanour and the dear reserve;And from two founts one stream which flow'd in peaceWhere I desire, collected where I would.Love and sore jealousy have seized my heart,And the fair face whose guidesConduct me by a plainer, shorter wayTo my one hope, where all my torments end.O treasured bliss, and all from thee which flowsOf peace, of war, or truce,Never abandon me while life is left!
At my past loss I weep by turns and smile,Because my faith is fix'd in what I hear.The present I enjoy and better wait;Silent, I count the years, yet crave their end,And in a lovely bough I nestle soThat e'en her stern repulse I thank and praise,Which has at length o'ercome my firm desire,And inly shown me, I had been the talk,And pointed at by hand: all this it quench'd.So much am I urged on,Needs must I own, thou wert not bold enough.Who pierced me in my side she heals the wound,For whom in heart more than in ink I write;Who quickens me or kills,And in one instant freezes me or fires.
Anon.


Written by Francesco Petrarch | Create an image from this poem

Sonnet L

[Pg 64]

SONNET L.

Lasso, che mal accorto fui da prima.

HE PRAYS LOVE TO KINDLE ALSO IN HER THE FLAME BY WHICH HE IS UNCEASINGLY TORMENTED.

Alas! this heart by me was little knownIn those first days when Love its depths explored,Where by degrees he made himself the lordOf my whole life, and claim'd it as his own:I did not think that, through his power alone,A heart time-steel'd, and so with valour stored,Such proof of failing firmness could afford,And fell by wrong self-confidence o'erthrown.Henceforward all defence too late will come,Save this, to prove, enough or little, hereIf to these mortal prayers Love lend his ear.Not now my prayer—nor can such e'er have room—That with more mercy he consume my heart,But in the fire that she may bear her part.
Macgregor.
Written by Elizabeth Bishop | Create an image from this poem

View Of The Capitol From The Library Of Congress

 Moving from left to left, the light
is heavy on the Dome, and coarse.
One small lunette turns it aside
and blankly stares off to the side
like a big white old wall-eyed horse.

On the east steps the Air Force Band
in uniforms of Air Force blue
is playing hard and loud, but--*****--
the music doesn't quite come through.

It comes in snatches, dim then keen,
then mute, and yet there is no breeze.
The giant trees stand in between.
I think the trees must intervene,

catching the music in their leaves
like gold-dust, till each big leaf sags.
Unceasingly the little flags
feed their limp stripes into the air,
and the band's efforts vanish there.

Great shades, edge over,
give the music room.
The gathered brasses want to go
boom--boom.
Written by William Morris | Create an image from this poem

The Nymphs Song to Hylas

 I KNOW a little garden-close 
Set thick with lily and red rose, 
Where I would wander if I might 
From dewy dawn to dewy night, 
And have one with me wandering. 

And though within it no birds sing, 
And though no pillar'd house is there, 
And though the apple boughs are bare 
Of fruit and blossom, would to God, 
Her feet upon the green grass trod, 
And I beheld them as before! 

There comes a murmur from the shore, 
And in the place two fair streams are, 
Drawn from the purple hills afar, 
Drawn down unto the restless sea; 
The hills whose flowers ne'er fed the bee, 
The shore no ship has ever seen, 
Still beaten by the billows green, 
Whose murmur comes unceasingly 
Unto the place for which I cry. 

For which I cry both day and night, 
For which I let slip all delight, 
That maketh me both deaf and blind, 
Careless to win, unskill'd to find, 
And quick to lose what all men seek. 

Yet tottering as I am, and weak, 
Still have I left a little breath 
To seek within the jaws of death 
An entrance to that happy place; 
To seek the unforgotten face 
Once seen, once kiss'd, once reft from me 
Anigh the murmuring of the sea.
Written by Alan Seeger | Create an image from this poem

Tithonus

 So when the verdure of his life was shed, 
With all the grace of ripened manlihead, 
And on his locks, but now so lovable, 
Old age like desolating winter fell, 
Leaving them white and flowerless and forlorn: 
Then from his bed the Goddess of the Morn 
Softly withheld, yet cherished him no less 
With pious works of pitying tenderness; 
Till when at length with vacant, heedless eyes, 
And hoary height bent down none otherwise 
Than burdened willows bend beneath their weight 
Of snow when winter winds turn temperate, -- 
So bowed with years -- when still he lingered on: 
Then to the daughter of Hyperion 
This counsel seemed the best: for she, afar 
By dove-gray seas under the morning star, 
Where, on the wide world's uttermost extremes, 
Her amber-walled, auroral palace gleams, 
High in an orient chamber bade prepare 
An everlasting couch, and laid him there, 
And leaving, closed the shining doors. But he, 
Deathless by Jove's compassionless decree, 
Found not, as others find, a dreamless rest. 
There wakeful, with half-waking dreams oppressed, 
Still in an aural, visionary haze 
Float round him vanished forms of happier days; 
Still at his side he fancies to behold 
The rosy, radiant thing beloved of old; 
And oft, as over dewy meads at morn, 
Far inland from a sunrise coast is borne 
The drowsy, muffled moaning of the sea, 
Even so his voice flows on unceasingly, -- 
Lisping sweet names of passion overblown, 
Breaking with dull, persistent undertone 
The breathless silence that forever broods 
Round those colossal, lustrous solitudes. 
Times change. Man's fortune prospers, or it falls. 
Change harbors not in those eternal halls 
And tranquil chamber where Tithonus lies. 
But through his window there the eastern skies 
Fall palely fair to the dim ocean's end. 
There, in blue mist where air and ocean blend, 
The lazy clouds that sail the wide world o'er 
Falter and turn where they can sail no more. 
There singing groves, there spacious gardens blow -- 
Cedars and silver poplars, row on row, 
Through whose black boughs on her appointed night, 
Flooding his chamber with enchanted light, 
Lifts the full moon's immeasurable sphere, 
Crimson and huge and wonderfully near.
Written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe | Create an image from this poem

True Enjoyment

 VAINLY wouldst thou, to gain a heart,

Heap up a maiden's lap with gold;
The joys of love thou must impart,

Wouldst thou e'er see those joys unfold.
The voices of the throng gold buys,

No single heart 'twill win for thee;
Wouldst thou a maiden make thy prize,

Thyself alone the bribe must be.

If by no sacred tie thou'rt bound,

Oh youth, thou must thyself restrain!
Well may true liberty be found,

Tho' man may seem to wear a chain.
Let one alone inflame thee e'er,

And if her heart with love o'erflows,
Let tenderness unite you there,

If duty's self no fetter knows.

First feel, oh youth! A girl then find

Worthy thy choice,--let her choose thee,
In body fair, and fair in mind,

And then thou wilt be blessed, like me.
I who have made this art mine own,

A girl have chosen such as this
The blessing of the priest alone

Is wanting to complete our bliss.

Nought but my rapture is her guide,

Only for me she cares to please,--
Ne'er wanton save when by my side,

And modest when the world she sees;
That time our glow may never chill,

She yields no right through frailty;
Her favour is a favour still,

And I must ever grateful be.

Yet I'm content, and full of joy,

If she'll but grant her smile so sweet,
Or if at table she'll employ,

To pillow hers, her lover's feet,
Give me the apple that she bit,

The glass from which she drank, bestow,
And when my kiss so orders it,

Her bosom, veil'd till then, will show.

And when she wills of love to speak,

In fond and silent hours of bliss,
Words from her mouth are all I seek,

Nought else I crave,--not e'en a kiss.
With what a soul her mind is fraught,

Wreath'd round with charms unceasingly!
She's perfect,--and she fails in nought

Save in her deigning to love me.

My rev'rence throws me at her feet,

My longing throws me on her breast;
This, youth, is rapture true and sweet,

Be wise, thus seeking to be blest.
When death shall take thee from her side,

To join the angelic choir above,
In heaven's bright mansions to abide,--
No diff'rence at the change thoult prove.

1767-8.

Book: Radiant Verses: A Journey Through Inspiring Poetry