WITH this golden pencil—write
“Written words must serve for sight.
For the broken lights that stirred
Wedded eyes the complete word.
Written words the trembling nerve
Of the lover’s ear must serve.
Laughter’s done and tears are over—
Written words, instead, my lover.
Words that have no scent must tell
How the secret jonquils smell
In your hair, and words protest
There are jonquils at your breast.
Written words the gift must waste,
When the very air hath taste
Of your lip, the sweets that part
Love’s soft mouth and reach the heart.
Separable these await
For the fifth to consummate,
That are nothing, each alone,
But all heaven joined in one.
This, being lost, had hurt too much,
Here are words instead of touch.”
Therefore write and break the lead
“Love that was alive is dead.”
COLUMBINE.
IF any ask, O tell them that the moon
Was lit in heaven when Queen Ashtaroth
Beat at her lamp and fell upon the swoon
Of love that soars in fire to fall a moth.
If any ask, O tell them that for this
Priam’s great city of Troy was sacrificed,
For love that is as bitter as the kiss
Of Judas the Iscariot, slaying Christ.