Sweet life if life were stronger,
Earth clear of years that wrong her,
Then two things might live longer,
Two sweeter things than they;
Delight, the rootless flower,
And love, the bloomless bower;
Delight that lives an hour,
And love that lives a day.

From evensong to daytime,
When April melts in Maytime,
Love lengthens out his playtime,
Love lessens breath by breath,
And kiss by kiss grows older
On listless throat or shoulder
Turned sideways now, turned colder
Then life that dreams of death.

This one thing once worth giving,
Life gave, and seemed worth living;
Sin sweet beyond forgiving
And brief beyond regret:
To laugh and lover together
And weave with foam and feather
And wind and words the tether
Our memories play with yet.

Ah, one thing worth beginning,
One thread in life worth spinning,
Ah Sweet, one sin worth sinning,
With all the whole soul's will;
To lull you til one stilled you,
To kiss you til one killed you,
To feed you til one filled you,
Sweet lips, if love could fill;

To hunt sweet love and lose him
Between white arm and bosom,
Between the bud and blossom'
Between your throat and chin;
To say of shame--what is it?
Or virtue--we can miss,
Of sin--we can but kiss it,
And it's no longer sin;

To feel the strong soul, stricken
Through fleshly pulses, quicken
Beneath swift sighs that thicken,
Soft hands and lips that smite;
Lips that no love can tire,
And hands that sting like fire,
Weaving the web Desire,
To snare the bird Delight.


But love so lightly plighted,
Our love with torch unlighted,
Paused near us unaffrighted,
Who found and left him free;
None, seeing us woven in sunder,
Will weep or laugh or wonder;
Light love stands clear of thunder,
And safe from winds at see.

As, when late lark gives warning
Of dying lights and dawning,
Night murmurs to the Morning,
"Lie still, O love, lie still";
And half her dark limbs cover
The white limbs of her lover,
With amorous plumes that hover
And fervant lips that chill.

As scornful day represses
Night's void and vain caresses,
And from her cloudier tresses
Unwinds the gold from his,
With limbs by limbs dividing
And breath by breath subsiding;
For love has no abiding,
But dies before the kiss.

So who hath it been, so be it
For who shall live and flee it?
But look that no man see it
Or hear it unaware;
Lest all that love and choose him
See Love, and so refuse him
For all who find him lose him,
But all have found him fair.