Sonnets : a sequence on profane love by George Henry Boker

Boker, George H. (1823-1890)

SONNETS

[I. When to his class the surgeon's skilful blade]

[II. To say I love thee, is but uttering]

[III. As a lorn sailor clinging to the wreck]

[IV. One hope survives; but that, like the sole sun]

[V. My heart is sad today; I know not why]

[VI. Lone echoes from the dim cloud-covered shore]

[VII. I am Love's thrall and vassal. Though I wear]

[VIII. O weary watches of the dismal night]

[IX. And does she love me now as yesterday?]

10.

[X. A shame arose betwixt my Love and me]

11.

[XI. If I should perish e'er I pen this line]

12.

[XII. Why sing forever in this mournful way]

13.

[XIII. Perhaps in mercy is the future masked]

14.

[XIV. O Love, I leave thee all that I hold dear]

15.

[XV. Where is my merit? By what special grace]

17.

[XVII. Too full of rapture was this sunny day]

18.

[XVIII. O heart, be not bewildered with delight]

19.

[XIX. Why should I love? Why lay my heart before]

20.

[XX. O sacred head that felt her queenly hand]

21.

[XXI. Sometimes I fear thou'lt poise my muse's praise]

22.

[XXII. Some hearts prevail by action; some have skill]

23.

[XXIII. I have thy love, and were I drunk with joy]

24.

[XXIV. Farewell once more,—and yet again farewell]

25.

[XXV. The leaden eyelids of wan twilight close]

26.

[XXVI. When we two parted, on a summer day]

27.

[XXVII. My darling, now the slumber of the night]

28.

[XXVIII. In the deep cloister of the night, a nun]

29.

[XXIX. As Cleopatra's pearl dissolved in wine]

30.

[XXX. When all the labors of the day are past]

31.

[XXXI. “And miss the way to heaven!” My closing word]

32.

[XXXII. The waves of busy life that whirling go]

33.

[XXXIII. As some new ghost, that wanders to and fro]

34.

[XXXIV. My length in earth would now contain me all]

35.

[XXXV. I know, O Lord, the summer fields are green]

36.

[XXXVI. If dreaming of thee be a waste of time]

37.

[XXXVII. Time masks, but cannot bound my love for thee]

38.

[XXXVIII. The swell and glitter of this stately stave]

39.

[XXXIX. Sometimes when loitering by the bitter shore]

40.

[XL. Beneath the stars and yonder waning moon]

41.

[XLI. To say my Love is beautiful, to praise]

42.

[XLII. If she should give me all I ask of her]

43.

[XLIII. The beams of morning flicker round my face]

44.

[XLIV. I cannot tell what cause dissolved my dream]

45.

[XLV. When I look back upon my early days]

46.

[XLVI. Today the lady of my heart was born]

47.

[XLVII. Hail! dearest day of all the storied year]

48.

[XLVIII. Oh! I have touched the blazing crown of bliss]

49.

[XLIX. Erewhile I lived in shows and hollow masks]

50.

[L. This is the perfect crown of all things here]

51.

[LI. Leander swimming towards the Mysian shore]

52.

[LII. In truth, Love, but a single hope remains]

53.

[LIII. I am already entered on the way]

54.

[LIV. If I have served my God with faithful soul]

55.

[LV. I strive to live my life in whitest truth]

56.

[LVI. The lagging days crawl slowly to their end]

57.

[LVII. Although the story of our love be lost]

58.

[LVIII. Our hearts are like two night-bound, shipwrecked barks]

59.

[LIX. If I am never merry when my brow]

60.

[LX. When, Love, I sing of thee, such little cares]

61.

[LXI. When I remember, Love, the happy hours]

62.

[LXII. This love of mine is no light thing, no toy]

63.

[LXIII. Dear Lord, this sense of supernatural power]

64.

[LXIV. Roll the grand harmonies which finite mind]

65.

[LXV. Is love a pleasure or a pain in mask]

66.

[LXVI. Tonight I walked with the grim Florentine]

67.

[LXVII. To watch the night out is a dreary thing]

68.

[LXVIII. When last I saw my darling's wondrous eyes]

69.

[LXIX. I cannot tell what charms my lady finds]

70.

[LXX. My lady's senses are so pure and fine]

71.

[LXXI. I am ashamed through this thick husk of clay]

72.

[LXXII. Ah! could I grow in some remote degree]

73.

[LXXIII. The satyr nature riots in my blood]

74.

[LXXIV. I was love's toy and froward instrument]

75.

[LXXV. So dainty white my lady's fancies are]

76.

[LXXVI. I have a faith that love can do as much]

77.

[LXXVII. Thus in her absence is my fancy cool]

78.

[LXXVIII. So many changing phases have I known]

79.

[LXXIX. Oh! sigh no more, no longer paint the air]

80.

[LXXX. From this wide outlook on art's lonely peak]

81.

[LXXXI. Is this the best art offers to her slave]

82.

[LXXXII. I sometimes feel so lonely! O my God]

83.

[LXXXIII. I, like thy shadow, am a part of thee]

84.

[LXXXIV. Sweet, when thy brow becomes the haunted spot]

85.

[LXXXV. I know not if one beauty less or more]

86.

[LXXXVI. In famed Sakoontala I read tonight]

87.

[LXXXVII. On my heart's altar when youth's fire burned low]

88.

[LXXXVIII. To be forever thus alone with thee]

89.

[LXXXIX. Today her Majesty was wroth and cold]

90.

[XC. I wonder if these sonnets which I sing]

91.

[XCI. When this warm hand is cold in death, and all]

92.

[XCII. The crocus opened slowly yesterday]

93.

[XCIII. Death clutches at my darling now and then]

94.

[XCIV. When on the splendor of thy shining head]

95.

[XCV. Death on his mission sought my lady's side]

96.

[XCVI. I hear thy summons, grizzly messenger]

97.

[XCVII. Against the changes of obsequious time]

98.

[XCVIII. Within this realm, sweet Lady, thou art queen]

99.

[XCIX. There shines a leaf on every slender spray]

100.

[C. For life and death to me are so akin]

101.

[CI. I love you with each fibre of this frame]

102.

[CII. My Darling's temper is beyond compare]

103.

[CIII. Parted again! Shall partings never cease?]

104.

[CIV. Sad is it that a love as pure as thine]

105.

[CV. If thou art sinful, there are thousands then]

106.

[CVI. King Midas, walking through his realm of old]

107.

[CVII. Now I have won my lady's priceless heart]

108.

[CVIII. Yes, everywhere some precious flower of God]

109.

[CIX. More than mere instinct, straight against the scope]

110.

[CX. For many days my heart has stood unchanged]

111.

[CXI. A vision of my lady came to me]

112.

[CXII. Gone, gone! The rayless window sheds no light]

113.

[CXIII. Whither, thou glory of thy gentle race]

114.

[CXIV. Of all the dreams I dreamed in bygone years]

115.

[CXV. Oh spring, that hides the wrinkled earth in green]

116.

[CXVI. I shall not flatter that gross mass of sin]

117.

[CXVII. Within the circle of my darling's charms]

118.

[CXVIII. My dearest, trust me! I may err and fail]

119.

[CXIX. If history, that feeds upon the past]

120.

[CXX. The dreary shadows round my heart tonight]

121.

[CXXI. Does not the round in which my numbers plod]

122.

[CXXII. If this be sorrow, I have never known]

123.

[CXXIII. I do not love her! So my Lady says]

124.

[CXXIV. I do not love thee! What vile act of mine]

125.

[CXXV. The moon hath touched my lady's restless brain]

126.

[CXXVI. If in the liking of thine eye to live]

127.

[CXXVII. A sadder word I never uttered yet]

128.

[CXXVIII. “Grieve not the heart that loves thee!” In a ring]

129.

[CXXIX. The dreadful vision of my fears has burst]

130.

[CXXX. Stand fast amidst the darkness! Ah! my dear]

131.

[CXXXI. Trial on trial we must meet and brave]

132.

[CXXXII. Love has no triumph and no future crown]

133.

[CXXXIII. Closer and closer draw thou to my side]

134.

[CXXXIV. They cannot part us. With this power of song]

135.

[CXXXV. I never wished for wings as yesternight]

136.

[CXXXVI. Except these flights of song, I nothing have]

137.

[CXXXVII. Ever a darkness somewhere in the sun]

138.

[CXXXVIII. About myself a shadow I have wrapped]

139.

[CXXXIX. How can I say I ever am alone]

140.

[CXL. Welcome, thou added sum of all delights]

141.

[CXLI. What sorry mark of nature can there be]

142.

[CXLII. I have been false for thy repose alone]

143.

[CXLIII. I know the days are heavy on thy hands]

144.

[CXLIV. For thy dear safety, not for mine own ease]

145.

[CXLV. 'Tis hard, 'tis hard, but it must be endured]

146.

[CXLVI. If it console thee, Sweet, to be aware]

147.

[CXLVII. I but half uttered what I purposed, dear]

148.

[CXLVIII. They who have heard my song esteem the strain]

149.

[CXLIX. If not the painter's nor the sculptor's skill]

150.

[CL. Let the world's people hiss at us! I meet]

151.

[CLI. I could not hope that one so rarely fair]

152.

[CLII. Clamber again into thy midday place]

153.

[CLIII. You say my Love no marvel is to you]

154.

[CLIV. I cannot say my lady is to you]

155.

[CLV. Heavy and dark, with gusts of spiteful snow]

156.

[CLVI. Out on the heart that has not faith enough]

157.

[CLVII. A noble woman! One who can forgive]

158.

[CLVIII. I raise this mantling beaker to my lip]

159.

[CLIX. Oh! what a hollow and a bootless thing]

160.

[CLX. The way I walk, an angel of God's throne]

161.

[CLXI. I never courted miser, fool or knave]

162.

[CLXII. If it has been the misery of my fate]

163.

[CLXIII. “O for my sake do you with fortune chide”]

164.

[CLXIV. I pity him, unhappy gentleman]

165.

[CLXV. As stands a statue on its pedestal]

166.

[CLXVI. Less in myself than thee do I believe]

167.

[CLXVII. When at confession by thy knee I kneel]

168.

[CLXVIII. If I were able to disclose thy charms]

169.

[CLXIX. Should I portray thee merely as I can]

170.

[CLXX. Yes, I could trust, forever and a day]

171.

[CLXXI. I trust my love for thee may expiate]

172.

[CLXXII. Within my mind I keep a holy plot]

173.

[CLXXIII. The thoughts that snarl about my heels by day]

174.

[CLXXIV. Some one within my hearing said tonight]

175.

[CLXXV. Nothing is stable. Though the deeds we do]

176.

[CLXXVI. Since that which issues from the sovereign head]

177.

[CLXXVII. Idle I am, if it be idleness]

178.

[CLXXVIII. The fane I build on this foundation stone]

179.

[CLXXIX. I do not falter in the sight of God]

180.

[CLXXX. There are more ways to heaven than mortals know]

181.

[CLXXXI. Spring blows her fruitful breath, and swiftly curls]

182.

[CLXXXII. It seems to mock me: all this heat and bloom]

183.

[CLXXXIII. I know that every note and chord of woe]

184.

[CLXXXIV. If sorry music on this lute were played]

185.

[CLXXXV. Hard is the fortune that has cast thy lot]

186.

[CLXXXVI. Some man will one day tell a passing friend]

187.

[CLXXXVII. Climb glory's ladder to the topmost height]

188.

[CLXXXVIII. My darling's features, painted by the light]

189.

[CLXXXIX. Another picture of my Love I have]

190.

[CXC. If I die now, I have not lived in vain]

191.

[CXCI. Absence from thee is something worse than death]

192.

[CXCII. To thee I oft have boasted, in my pride]

193.

[CXCIII. I wonder, Darling, if there does not wear]

194.

[CXCIV. Three seasons only in his calendar]

195.

[CXCV. Against mischances I have shut my ear]

196.

[CXCVI. My stain of earth hath mingled with the stream]

197.

[CXCVII. Go count the violets on April's breast]

198.

[CXCVIII. When mateless Adam loitered in the shade]

199.

[CXCIX. What spirit worthy of its noble birth]

200.

[CC. If we were fashioned to be ignorant]

201.

[CCI. Within our lips is stored the bitterness]

202.

[CCII. Love stirs the pulses of my deeper thought]

203.

[CCIII. Night takes the scepter from the hand of day]

204.

[CCIV. If Grecian Helen pleaded with the tongue]

205.

[CCV. For what to me were Helen's honeyed word]

206.

[CCVI. When men distrust me, not because they find]

207.

[CCVII. This fellow calls me sordid, that one poor]

208.

[CCVIII. Speed on thy solemn pilgrimage, O Earth]

209.

[CCIX. When first I met thee, as thou know'st, I stood]

210.

[CCX. Amidst the lottery of days I draw]

211.

[CCXI. I cannot liken thee to any flower]

212.

[CCXII. Cast on the lily's cheek the rose's glow]

213.

[CCXIII. White as this paper was my lady's mind]

214.

[CCXIV. Like to an aged poet who reviews]

215.

[CCXV. Even as the level sunlight glorifies]

216.

[CCXVI. “I write too coldly and I write too much!”]

217.

[CCXVII. These gusts of passion blown in many a mood]

218.

[CCXVIII. The present only do we hold in thrall]

219.

[CCXIX. If beauty is not an immortal thing]

220.

[CCXX. Shall I not know thee in the life to be]

221.

[CCXXI. If sin be punished, or be purged away]

222.

[CCXXII. Saint Paul has said this mortal shall arise]

223.

[CCXXIII. I cannot think thou would'st forget me even]

224.

[CCXXIV. I heard today that one, who sometime reigned]

225.

[CCXXV. She who gives all, and yet withholds her heart]

226.

[CCXXVI. Why should I fret the passion of this string]

227.

[CCXXVII. O World, I owe thee nothing; I have had]

228.

[CCXXVIII. Yet not because the world turns coldly by]

229.

[CCXXIX. This is a sorry ending to a thing]

230.

[CCXXX. When I review the long procession gone]

231.

[CCXXXI. Never, dear season, shall I tire to sing]

232.

[CCXXXII. Now infant nature, just awaking, lies]

233.

[CCXXXIII. Half that we learn is wisdom of the heart]

234.

[CCXXXIV. A torpid season once in every year]

235.

[CCXXXV. O gentle frenzy, too supreme delight]

236.

[CCXXXVI. When I consider what a time has flown]

237.

[CCXXXVII. To hold a station on the trembling earth]

238.

[CCXXXVIII. Well, after all the prattle buzzed around]

239.

[CCXXXIX. Love is our all in all! I solemnly]

240.

[CCXL. So long have paused the strings across my lute]

241.

[CCXLI. There is no greater sorrow, Dante said]

242.

[CCXLII. Sweet sorceress, dear foe to every gift]

243.

[CCXLIII. O let me break my slavehood! Link by link]

244.

[CCXLIV. I do not merit it that thou shouldst stir]

245.

[CCXLV. I cannot tell thee, Sweet, what tenderness]

246.

[CCXLVI. This comfort only have I in my woes]

247.

[CCXLVII. Love is the source of all my griefs, 'tis true]

248.

[CCXLVIII. Sometimes I see, in dreams astray from sleep]

249.

[CCXLIX. I cannot tell thee when my heart began]

250.

[CCL. As here I sit and dally with the pen]

251.

[CCLI. When with the courage lent me by thy smile]

252.

[CCLII. I play the masquer to the world, I grant]

253.

[CCLIII. Falsehood to thee would be the blackest crime]

254.

[CCLIV. Yes, true to thee, if false to all beside]

255.

[CCLV. If it be sin, as rigid men aver]

256.

[CCLVI. Know you a soul so white and inly pure]

257.

[CCLVII. They at the altar pledge their formal vow]

258.

[CCLVIII. Sing of her beauty! Sing of that which grows]

259.

[CCLIX. O, I am apt of others' charms to sing]

260.

[CCLX. The pearly vales that circled round her breast]

261.

[CCLXI. She on the jealous gods' Olympian hill]

262.

[CCLXII. The love of this dear woman is so sweet]

263.

[CCLXIII. I will not have our holy love profaned]

264.

[CCLXIV. Once as I slumbered, with my heart awake]

265.

[CCLXV. The color of my lady's hair is brown]

266.

[CCLXVI. My darling's brow is classic, low and wide]

267.

[CCLXVII. Her eyes are of that pure and perfect grey]

268.

[CCLXVIII. Heaven shaped her ear in fashioning the shell]

269.

[CCLXIX. Her nose is not the rigid Phidian line]

270.

[CCLXX. Her mouth, that scarlet herald of her heart]

271.

[CCLXXI. Her face is perfect oval, one long sweep]

272.

[CCLXXII. A marvel to me is my lady's hand]

273.

[CCLXXIII. Her prudish foot, seen rarely as a nun]

274.

[CCLXXIV. Such of her beauties as the world may see]

275.

[CCLXXV. Thus gracious ever is my darling's mind]

276.

[CCLXXVI. A golden circle for my lady's hand]

277.

[CCLXXVII. If any comfort lies within the zone]

278.

[CCLXXVIII. There blew a breeze across the flowers, that said]

279.

[CCLXXIX. Again I touch thee, vexing instrument]

280.

[CCLXXX. Ah, lute, how well I know each tone of thee]

281.

[CCLXXXI. Hark! in that tone I heard my lady sigh]

282.

[CCLXXXII. 'Tis not in hollow wood and tinkling wire]

283.

[CCLXXXIII. Fairest of all the fair ones I have seen]

284.

[CCLXXXIV. Darling, I kiss thee from thy slender feet]

285.

[CCLXXXV. How shall I sing of thee, thyself who art]

286.

[CCLXXXVI. I touched the limit of supremest bliss]

287.

[CCLXXXVII. When distance severs us, and we become]

288.

[CCLXXXVIII. O, I adjure thee, keep my words in mind]

289.

[CCLXXXIX. This was my lady's birthday, and yet I]

290.

[CCXC. O happy day! From morn till midnight tolled]

291.

[CCXCI. Sweet is my lady's body; damask rose]

292.

[CCXCII. Beloved, thou cam'st to me of late and said]

293.

[CCXCIII. As from his wrist the eager falconer]

294.

[CCXCIV. What hast thou done, my Darling, these two days?]

295.

[CCXCV. My own Beloved, wilt thou prove true indeed]

296.

[CCXCVI. I love thee, love thee! Let these words atone]

297.

[CCXCVII. O say thou lovest me; say it o'er again]

298.

[CCXCVIII. Tonight I saw my darling, bathed in light]

299.

[CCXCIX. My darling, O my darling, let me gaze]

300.

[CCC. Darling, to say I love thee, is to say]

301.

[CCCI. Mere love, the common commerce of the earth]

302.

[CCCII. My lady's birthday rises golden fair]

303.

[CCCIII. I bend and kiss thee; 'tis a little thing]

304.

[CCCIV. Thy birthday opened with artillery]

305.

[CCCV. In lingering winter was my darling born]

306.

[CCCVI. Thy birthday ends a year of grief and pain]

307.

[CCCVII. These blows of fate that shake our troubled life]

308.

[CCCVIII. Love sat at ease upon Time's bony knee]

309.

[CCCIX. The years repeat themselves; and now, once more]

310.

[CCCX. I mark not seasons by the calendar]

311.

[CCCXI. Like to a flock of birds, the flying days]

312.

[CCCXII. Another year has passed us, while the earth]

313.

[CCCXIII. By thy own truth, Beloved, I am true!]

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Sonnets : a sequence on profane love by George Henry Boker

George H. Boker

1823-1890

University of Virginia Library

Sonnets : a sequence on profane love by George Henry Boker

George H. Boker

University of Pennsylvania Press

Philadelphia

1929