 | The Collected Poems of Philip Bourke Marston |  |
I.
“A man will give his life for me,” Love saith.
“His heart and brain and body will I take,
And if Fate wills so, for that man, will make
A pleasure-house of life. Men shrink from death;
Yet I, by even a look, a tone, a breath,
Can make the death-hour lovely for my sake.
All things for me, a lover will forsake,
And verily I will reward his faith;
“His heart and brain and body will I take,
And if Fate wills so, for that man, will make
A pleasure-house of life. Men shrink from death;
Yet I, by even a look, a tone, a breath,
Can make the death-hour lovely for my sake.
All things for me, a lover will forsake,
And verily I will reward his faith;
“But if a man have sorrow at my hand,
If Death the life of all he loves destroys,
And he should seek for any other joys,
Or search for consolation, I will brand
That man with shame, and utter with my voice
The words that bid him from my sight, my land.”
If Death the life of all he loves destroys,
And he should seek for any other joys,
Or search for consolation, I will brand
That man with shame, and utter with my voice
The words that bid him from my sight, my land.”
| The Collected Poems of Philip Bourke Marston | |