Said the Lion to the Lioness -- 'When you are amber dust, -- No more a raging fire like the heat of the Sun (No liking but all lust) -- Remember still the flowering of the amber blood and bone The rippling of bright muscles like a sea Remember the rose-prickles of bright paws Though we shall mate no more Till the fire of that sun the heart and the moon-cold bone are one.' Said the Skeleton lying upon the sands of Time -- ‘The great gold planet that is the mourning heat of the Sun; Is greater than all gold, more powerful Than the tawny body of a Lion that fire consumes Like all that grows or leaps . . . so is the heart More powerful than all dust. Once I was Hercules Or Samson, strong as the pillars of the seas: But the flames of the heart consumed me, and the mind Is but a foolish wind.' Said the Sun to the Moon -- 'When you are but a lonely white crone, And I, a dead King in my golden armour somewhere in a dark wood, Remember only this of our hopeless love That never till Time is done Will the fire of the heart and the fire of the mind be one.' | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...GARDEN WIRELESS by CARL SANDBURG A BOOK OF AIRS: SONG 2 by THOMAS CAMPION MORTAL COMBAT by MARY ELIZABETH COLERIDGE SUMMER'S LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT: A LITANY IN TIME OF PLAGUE by THOMAS NASHE CUPID MISTAKEN by MATTHEW PRIOR THE IMPROVISATORE: ALBERT AND EMILY by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES |