OTHER SONNETS.
THREE SONNETS OF LOVE.
I.
AT NOONTIDE SEEKING.
CAN love being love and therefore magical
When summer and the roses lie between,
Find back to spring? Or shall he know at all
The places where his golden feet have been
At noontide seeking. Shall he know again
The tune of dawn, the unconditioned sky,
The world before the coming of the rain,
That like a shadow waited and went by,
Soft like a God and like a God aflame?
Ah will he find that murmur at your lips,
Still see you standing, as the morning stands,
With fingers stretched that touched and fled and came
To mine again, warm to the tender lips
Once lilies and now roses—Oh your hands?
II.
AN ACCUSATION.
WHAT have you given, love, to those who gave
All for your sake? What gift to weigh the worth
Of those who, having all, did nothing save,
But for a kiss made jetsam of the earth?
What answer have you for the thronging ghosts—
Gentlemen of high heart, who were not brave
Because of you? What for the stricken hosts
Of those who, seeking truth, embraced the grave
Your magic sets about the brain? What way
Of answer have you for the fallen tears
Of those who heard you calling, and, once strong
As being pure, became the body’s prey?
What answer, O sweet God, to all the years
That worshipped you and crowned you, and were wrong?