I love thee, Mary, and thou lovest me,

Our mutual flame is like the affinity

That doth exist between two simple bodies.

I am Potassium to thy Oxygen;

’Tis little that the holy marriage vow

Shall shortly make us one. That unity

Is, after all, but metaphysical.

Oh! would that I, my Mary, were an Acid—

A living Acid; thou an Alkali

Endowed with human sense; that, brought together,