 | Love's Perversity ; or, Eros and Anteros |  |
139
Dedicatory Sonnet.
A cynic mother's half-heroic son,
Hiding a warm heart 'neath a pedant's rind:
A frank, fierce maiden, with a manlike mind,
Pure by main pride and barefaced as the sun:
An orphan child, too lightly wooed and won,
Weak, vain, in ill suspicion light as wind:
A heartless fop, by blown conceit made blind
To scorn of self and others for ill done:
Hiding a warm heart 'neath a pedant's rind:
A frank, fierce maiden, with a manlike mind,
Pure by main pride and barefaced as the sun:
An orphan child, too lightly wooed and won,
Weak, vain, in ill suspicion light as wind:
A heartless fop, by blown conceit made blind
To scorn of self and others for ill done:
'Mid these the inexplicable choice of love
Strikes deadly fire: but o'er life's meaner head
The storm rolls off in laughter, shower, and shine.
Lank lust has never ornament enough:
Pure passion can go bare. So lead to bed
This naked bride, this tragedy of mine.
Strikes deadly fire: but o'er life's meaner head
The storm rolls off in laughter, shower, and shine.
Lank lust has never ornament enough:
Pure passion can go bare. So lead to bed
This naked bride, this tragedy of mine.
March 8, 1885.
| Love's Perversity ; or, Eros and Anteros | |