University of Virginia Library


126

II.

[Or, as a man might love some haughty queen]

Or, as a man might love some haughty queen
I love God. How the lover might rejoice
At accents he finds silvery of that voice
Which makes the base slaves tremble, and the mean!
The lover faces her with look serene,
Who knows the grey eyes and the clinging breast
By him in sweet proximity possest
Are all too sweet for wrath to intervene.
O sweet sweet gleaming body of a God!
No wrath there is in thee: the lover trod
Unchidden that queen's palace-chamber through—
And so I likewise fearlessly embrace
Thy form, and look thy glory in the face;
Thine inmost woman-heart is gentle too.
January, 1877.