Poems, 1899-1902 / George Cabot Lodge [electronic text]

FIRST.

I.

She said: "O take me! Let my life become "Part of your pleasure. As the rose that leaf "By leaf falls scented from the crimson sheaf "You loved, even so, until my life is numb "And bare with giving, till the total sum "Of joy my life contains, to serve your need "Is spent, till all the music of my reed "Is played to please you, till you leave me, dumb— "So am I yours! to love you till you tire "Of love. I give so little!—yet the whole: "The best and worst of me, my body and soul! "O take me! Yours the nobler part, to take "Unrecompensed my prodigal desire "That pains me and would kill me for your sake!"

II.

He said: "Enough! I take you and repay "Nothing you give, but waste your sacrifice; "I let your body and soul alone suffice, "Your fierce love's largess lure me for a day. "Held in my power your soul shall cease to pray, "Your lips forget their pieties to entice "My lips, and death at last shall film with ice "Your desolate heart once drained and cast away. "Come to me! You shall utterly be turned "Into my pleasure, till my satiate sense "Sickens to see you, till your flesh is burned "Dry in my service, till the soul you staked "Against a careless kiss is lost, till hence "I drive you, with the thirst you nourished slaked!"

III.

She said: "Thank God! Beloved, I merely ask "Sufferance for love and me My soul? I stake "It, swift to lose the bauble for your sake, "To spill the liquor as I break the flask!" She held the cup: then suddenly the masque Shattered before him, and the woman, real And soul-transfigured with matured ideal, Faced him—divine to meet her mortal task. As sunlight breaks thro' vistas grey with rain, The breathless truth broke briefly on his brain. He paused and felt her fail to understand. She, desolate, shuddered watching him depart; The miracle of love's divine command Filled him, the gospel of the human heart!