Again, when her warm veins are full of life,
And youth’s volcanic tidal wave of fire
Sends the swift mercury of her pulses higher,
Her beauty stirs my heart to maddening strife,
And all the tiger in my blood is rife;
I love her with a lover’s fierce desire,
And find in her my dream, complete, entire,
Child, Mother, Mistress—all in one word—Wife.
INBORN.
AS long as men have eyes wherewith to gaze,
As long as men have eyes.
The sight of beauty to their sense shall be
As mighty winds are to a sleeping sea
When stormy billows rise.
And beauty’s smile shall stir youth’s ardent blood
As rays of sunlight burst the swelling bud;
As long as men have eyes wherewith to gaze.
As long as men have words wherewith to praise,
As long as men have words,
They shall describe the softly-moulded breast,
Where Love and Pleasure make their downy nest,
Like little singing birds;
And lovely limbs, and lips of luscious fire,
Shall be the theme of many a poet’s lyre,
As long as men have words wherewith to praise.
As long as men have hearts that long for homes,
As long as men have hearts,
Hid often like the acorn in the earth,
Their inborn love of noble woman’s worth,
Beyond all beauty’s arts,
Shall stem the sensuous current of desire,
And urge the world’s best thought to something higher.
As long as men have hearts that long for homes.
TWO PRAYERS.
HIS.
DEAR, when you lift your gentle heart in prayer,
Ask God to send His angel Death to me
Long ere He comes to you, if that may be.
I would dwell with you in that new life there,
But having, man-like, sinned, I must prepare,
By sad probation, ere I hope to see
Those upper realms which are at once thrown free
To sweet, white souls like yours, unstained and fair
Time is so brief on earth, I well might spare
A few short years, if so I could atone
For my marred past, ere you are called above.
My soul would glory in its own despair,
Till purified I met you at God’s throne,
And entered on Eternities of Love.