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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE DEATH POTION (IN ITALY, 15--) by LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE

Poet Analysis

First Line: ONE DROP OF THIS, AND SHE WILL NOT KNOW
Last Line: (HEAR, LORD JESUS!)
ONE drop of this, and she will not know
If she be foul or fair;
One drop, and I may bind him again
With a thread of my golden hair.
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
I would that those folk across the street,
In old St. Simon's there,
Would hush their noise: for they sing so sweet
They make this rare drop seem less rare.
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
It is May; my plum-trees five
Down in the court below
Look like five little chorister boys
Tiptoe to chant, so white they blow.
(Hear, Lord Jesus 7)
And a butterfly like a violet
Flits through the sun and lights on the sill
Close to my hand. Are the bees about,
Or is it the wind comes down the hill?
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
But what have I to do with the May,
Or any other weather?
Or with five white plum-trees? Hate and I,
And I and Hell, be yoked together.
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
(One drop is sure to kill.) When she dies,
They will put the cross on her breast,
And get the golden candlesticks out
For her head and feet, and call her blest.
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
But she is a thief! Do ye h ear me in Heaven?
Her soul shall not come in
To those white souls. She is pitch, not snow.
Saint Simon, Saint Simon, is Theft not sin?
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
For he was mine, and I was his;
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
Though we had shame, yet had we bliss.
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
I fell, but for love, love, love;
And for love, love, love, I swear!
I, for this man and my love,
Would have wiped his feet with my hair!
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
This robber came; she lay in wait;
She sprang upon him unaware;
He thinks to wed her with a ring
To-morrow in St. Simon's there.
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)
One drop? And she shall have it then
In a sup of her lover's wine;
So -- old things will come back again,
And I be his, and he be mine!
(Hear, Lord Jesus!)



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