Where we
Stood silently
And heard
Heart-music stirred

On chords
By minstrel Lords
Whose wings
Moved to the strings.

Why—why
Dared we to try,
To prove
Our love?

Wrong! Wrong!
When we knew song
And light
And spirit-might.

So now
With paling brow
And set
Hard lips, we two are met

To kill!
Ah, would your will
Make mine
As grapes bruised for the wine?

Seek you
To run me through?
I take
My sword and break

The blade—
Strike! I have made
Of it a cross,
Counting that loss

Which holds
Me from your garment-folds:
The sign
Proves me forever thine;

Proves that I give
Self that our love may live!