SINCE I have set my lips to your full cup, my sweet, Since I my pallid face between your hands have laid, Since I have known your soul, and all the bloom of it, And all the perfume rare, now buried in the shade; Since it was given to me to hear one happy while, The words wherein your heart spoke all its mysteries, Since I have seen you weep, and since I have seen you smile, Your lips upon my lips, and your eyes upon my eyes; Since I have known above my forehead glance and gleam, A ray, a single ray, of your star, veiled always, Since I have felt the fall, upon my lifetime's stream, Of one rose petal plucked from the roses of your days; I now am bold to say to the swift changing hours, Pass, pass upon your way, for I grow never old, Fleet to the dark abysm with all your fading flowers, One rose that none may pluck, within my heart I hold. Your flying wings may smite, but they can never spill The cup fulfilled of love, from which my lips are wet; My heart has far more fire than you can frost to chill, My soul more love than you can make my soul forget. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WISHES TO HIS SUPPOSED MISTRESS by RICHARD CRASHAW A HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER by JOHN DONNE AN ELEGY ON THE DEATH OF A MAD DOG by OLIVER GOLDSMITH TORTOISE SHELL by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE ARNOLD [VON] WINKELRIED by JAMES MONTGOMERY TO THE CUCKOO (1) by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH THE CLOUDS: THE OLD EDUCATION by ARISTOPHANES PSALMS 71. PRAYER AND SONG OF THE AGED CHRISTIAN by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |