"See: brood: remember: this thy function only;
Neither to have nor do is meet for thee."
"Ah, earth's a palace where I must go lonely!"
"Nay: earth's a dungeon which thou passest, free."
VI. WOOD-PIGEONS
"I cannot soar beside, but must for ever suffer
Blue air athrill with thee to lap against my breast,
And dream it is thy wing."
—"Dear, sighs about thee hover:
Among the dewy leaves my longing is thy guest.
Yet, lone and far apart, shall we no joy discover
To travel the same sky, and by one sea to rest?
Say, mate in all this world?"
—"Ah, mute forbidden lover,
Ah, song I shall not hear!"
—"Ah, sweet unbuilded nest!"
VII. PREDICAMENTS
"If the gods ruin send?"—
"Make that thy bride and friend."
"If the gods cheat?"—"They say
The one true word alway."
"If for some loss I pine?"
"—The past is theirs, yet thine."
"If I sue not?"—"Vain cares!
The morrow's thine, not theirs."
VIII. THE CO-ETERNAL
"Is it thou, silly heart,
Not prone on thy pallet, but grieving apart?"
—"Natal Star, even so."
"I miss thee to-night, while thou smoulderest low."
—"Live in beauty! but I
For bloodshed of spirit, here dwindle and die."
"Are we two not the same,
By law everlasting one mystical flame?
Aloft if I burn,
Every ray of my light be thy stair of return:
Up, up! to our lot
Where warfare and time and the body are not."
IX. STERN APHRODITE
"Iole is coy with me,
Goddess! for a month I suffer
Knowing not how far I be:
Teach me softer arts, or rougher,
Well to sail that sea."
"Fie: how long could Love divine
Venturing, abstain from answer,
Nor look landward for a sign!
Niggard, take of thine entrancer
Shipwreck in the brine."