O
VE,
Love,
Love!
O withering might!
O sun, that from thy noonday height Shudderest when I strain my sight,
Throbbing thro' all thy heat and light, Lo, falling from my constant mind, Lo, parch'd and wither'd, deaf and blind, I whirl like leaves in roaring wind. Last night I wasted hateful hours Below the city's eastern towers:
I thirsted for the brooks, the showers:
I roll'd among the tender flowers: I crush'd them on my breast, my mouth; I look'd athwart the burning drouth Of that long desert to the south. Last night, when some one spoke his name,
From my swift blood that went and came A thousand little shafts of flame Were shiver'd in my narrow frame. O Love,
O fire! once he drew With one long kiss my whole soul thro' My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew. Before he mounts the hill,
I know He cometh quickly: from below Sweet gales, as from deep gardens, blow Before him, striking on my brow. In my dry brain my spirit soon, Down-deepening from swoon to swoon, Faints like a daled morning moon. The wind sounds like a silver wire,
And from beyond the noon a fire Is pour'd upon the hills, and nigher The skies stoop down in their desire; And, isled in sudden seas of light, My heart, pierced thro' with fierce delight, Bursts into blossom in his sight. My whole soul waiting silently,
All naked in a sultry sky,
Droops blinded with his shining eye:
I will possess him or will die. I will grow round him in his place, Grow, live, die looking on his face, Die, dying clasp'd in his embrace.
