University of Virginia Library


196

IX. POSSESSION.

Those lips are mine! for on them I have set
The living seal of passionate possession:
Those brows are mine which like a coronet
Arch o'er her sweet eyes, in their royal session
Of high debate concerning ecstasy,
How it may hold off grief! for on them I
Have breathed the flush'd soul of idolatry:
Mine those debaters high! and mine those tresses
Which hold my falcon spirit in their jesses!
Mine that white hand, inlaid with tracery
Of delicate blue! and mine that globed shrine,
Where Love dwells pantingly!—All, all is mine!—
Nor do I but possess them by a name;
But the true heart-lord of those riches am!