My lord could think of nothing but the lady who had bidden him cut

His way to her by such detours. Aye, this was true romance—the slut.

We called her secretly The Burr—whereof was plenty in our beds—

For night by night he crooned of her, nor even named the Sepulchre:

I waited, and the hours were loth to close.

They scarcely stirred till evening leapt to sight

Between the shadows that all substance throws

As bridges for its passage to the night.

You never came. Life dozes at the touch

Of those not wholly resolute to live,