Love is bitter,
but can salt taint sea-flowers,
grief, happiness?
Is it bitter to give back
love to your lover
if he crave it?
Is it bitter to give back
love to your lover
if he wish it
for a new favourite?
who can say,
or is it sweet?
Is it sweet
to possess utterly?
or is it bitter,
bitter as ash?
4
I had thought myself frail;
a petal,
with light equal
on leaf and under-leaf.
I had thought myself frail;
a lamp,
shell, ivory or crust of pearl,
about to fall shattered,
with flame spent.
I cried:
“I must perish,
I am deserted,
an outcast, desperate
in this darkness,”
(such fire rent me with Hesperus,)
then the day broke.
5
WHAT need of a lamp
when day lightens us,
what need to bind love
when love stands
with such radiant wings
over us?