KISSES.
My heart is beating with all things that are,
My blood is wild unrest;
With what a passion pants yon eager star
Upon the water’s breast!
Clasped in the air’s soft arms the world doth sleep;
Asleep its moving seas, its humming lands;
With what a hungry lip the ocean deep
Lappeth forever the white-breasted sands!
What love is in the moon’s eternal eyes,
Leaning unto the earth from out the midnight skies!
Thy large dark eyes are wide upon my brow,
Filled with as tender light
As yon low moon doth fill the heavens now,
This mellow autumn night!
On the late flowers I linger at thy feet;
I tremble when I touch thy garment’s rim;
I clasp thy waist, I feel thy bosom’s beat,—
Oh, kiss me into faintness sweet and dim!
Thou leanest to me as a swelling peach,
Full-juiced and mellow, leaneth to the taker’s reach.
Thy hair is loosened by that kiss you gave;
It floods my shoulders o’er;
Another yet! Oh, as a weary wave
Subsides upon the shore,
My hungry being, with its hopes, its fears,
My heart like moon-charmed waters, all unrest,
Yet strong as is despair, as weak as tears,
Doth faint upon thy breast!
I feel thy clasping arms, my cheek is wet
With thy rich tears. One kiss, sweet, sweet. Another yet!
Alexander Smith.
