Poem: Apologia

Is it thy will that I should wax and wane,

Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey,

And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain

Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Is it thy will - Love that I love so well -

That my Soul's House should be a tortured spot

Wherein, like evil paramours, must dwell

The quenchless flame, the worm that dieth not?

Nay, if it be thy will I shall endure,

And sell ambition at the common mart,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址And let dull failure be my vestiture,

And sorrow dig its grave within my heart.

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Perchance it may be better so - at least

I have not made my heart a heart of stone,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Nor starved my boyhood of its goodly feast,

Nor walked where Beauty is a thing unknown.

Many a man hath done so; sought to fence

上海龙凤shlf最新地址In straitened bonds the soul that should be free,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Trodden the dusty road of common sense,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址While all the forest sang of liberty,

Not marking how the spotted hawk in flight

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Passed on wide pinion through the lofty air,

To where some steep untrodden mountain height

Caught the last tresses of the Sun God's hair.

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Or how the little flower he trod upon,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址The daisy, that white-feathered shield of gold,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Followed with wistful eyes the wandering sun

Content if once its leaves were aureoled.

上海龙凤shlf最新地址But surely it is something to have been

The best beloved for a little while,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址To have walked hand in hand with Love, and seen

His purple wings flit once across thy smile.

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Ay! though the gorged asp of passion feed

上海龙凤shlf最新地址On my boy's heart, yet have I burst the bars,

上海龙凤shlf最新地址Stood face to face with Beauty, known indeed

The Love which moves the Sun and all the stars!