Trust me? Hardly! I bid you not lean (remark)
On my spirit, your spirit—my flesh, your flesh—
Hold my hand, and tread safe through the horrible dark—
Quench my soul as with sprinklings of snow, then refresh
With some blast of new bellows the spark!
XV
By no means! This were easy (men tell me) to say—
"Give her all, throw your chance up, fall back on her heart!"
(Say my friends) "she must change! after night follows day—"
No such fool! I am safe set in hell, for my part—
So let heaven do the worst now he may!
XVI
What they bid me? Well, this, nothing more—"Tell her this—
'You are mine, I yours, though the whole world fail—
Though things are not, I know there is one thing which is—
Though the oars break, there's hope for us yet—hoist the sail!
Oh, your heart! what's the heart? but your kiss!'
XVII
"Then she breaks, she drops down, she lies flat at your feet—
Take her then!" Well, I knew it—what fools are men!
Take the bee by her horns, will your honey prove sweet?
Sweet is grass—will you pasture your cows in a fen?
Oh, if contraries could but once meet!
XVIII
Love you call it? Some twitch in the moon's face (observe),
Wet blink of her eyelid, tear dropt about dewfall,
Cheek flushed or obscured—does it make the sky swerve?
Fetch the test, work the question to rags, bring to proof all—
Find what souls want and bodies deserve!
XIX