POSIES

—Is this ... the posy of a ring?—Hamlet.

I were not worth you, could I long for you;

But should you come, you would find me ready.

The lamp is lighted, the flame is steady:

Over the strait I toss this song for you!

Life! lordly giver and gay!

I, for this manor of Time,

Lightly and lovingly pay

Rent with the rose of a rhyme.

O unapproachable glories of the night!

You type not my desire: enough for me

The vanished meteor’s immortality,

Brief memory of a moment touched with light.