When you were mine,
(were you ever, truly?),
And unchrism'd love
Beat its wings unruly,
Against the cage bars,
Straining to be free,
I would have chanced
At anything, to make you
Want to cling to me.
Had it been within my power
To pull down the moon, my sweet,
To deprive the world of moonlight,
I would have lain her at your feet.
Though the universe is endless,
Curving; fusing time and space,
Its continuum I'd have mastered,
To keep my gaze upon your face.
From a billion, billion stars,
You could have had your choice.
I'd have caught them, brought them
Down to rest,
Against, but not more lovely than,
The sweet torment of your breast.
In the pale rose streaks of morning,
Each wand'ring comet, if you would care,
Entrained to thee, I would have made,
To weave a diadem for your hair.
But against your eyes, no star
Or constellation were possible to set;
There are no jewels in heaven's throng,
But would be dimmed to a candle
In comparison,
To the blaze in your glances met.
The planets, in their majestic gyre,
Sing, or so men once believed.
I would have gathered every note,
Into a treasury for you,
Within my heart ensheaved.
But now, in jaded solitude, I doubt
To ever hear that song again,
Blown on the velvet breath of night,
Their halting, sweet, absurd, refrain.
My dejected heart to waste is thrown,
A desolation, an echo of that tune.
But still my hand,
At the distance of my arm,
Can touch, and encircle, the moon.
