LIV

AFTER MANY YEARS

By mute communions and by salt sad kisses, By Pity's webs that still with fiery strands Wove us together, by the unplumbed abysses Where we have gazed and never loosened hands, By holy water we have given each other At Beauty's blessed doors, and by the hearts Of sweet Delight and Agony her brother, By bright new marriages in all great arts, By the rare wisdom like miraculous amber Won by the desolate grey sound of tears, By wedding-music of the flute and tambour Prevailing o'er Time's cruel plot of years, By all the proud prayers granted and denied us, Fate has no sword at all that can divide us.

 

 

 

 

LV

TREASURE

Not mine the silver ride of the redeemer, Not mine the secret vision of the saint, Not mine the martyrdoms of Truth's dark dreamer Nor bitter beatitudes of Art. O quaint Undoing of youth's horoscope! No splendours Nor laurels, nor wisdom in a myrrhine bowl! Here is the treasure that the past surrenders, A spoil of roses coffered in the soul,— Much like another woman's! Rare perfumes And cleaving thorns, faded pathetic store Of kisses and sighs, would those heroic dooms I craved of old have yet enriched me more? I have not dwelt in Galilee nor Tyre Nor Athens. But I have my heart's desire.

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