V
Love, when you smiled and beckoned
My cold thought stood aloof and reckoned
Some heights above you.
But now you have turned and gone
Smiling, fugitive as dawn,
I know (oh fool!) I love you.
VI
Love, with her queen’s face and child lips
Walked at my side; her hair about her head
Streamed, with riotous and exuberant spread
Like sails and cordage of sea-breasting ships,
And as the tides, her mirthful glints and dips
Tugged at my anchor’d calmness—then she said,
Chilling to gravity, “You are lead.”
It was as when the bright blade cruelly slips,
For in my soul that hid its vain desires
Under closed hatch, I knew the stifled fires
Devoured in silence, as stealthy serpents writhe
Their folds about their prey; and seemed to hear
The passing of some irrevocable year,
And faint for whistle of a monstrous scythe.