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207

WINGED LOVE

“Though watched and captive, yet in spite of all,
They found the art of kissing through a wall.”
—Pope.

I

Through walls and doors Love goes:
His lips are in the rose;
His feet are on the hills;
His voice is in the rills.

II

His breath is in the breeze;
He thunders in strong seas;
And through the arcades of morn
He winds his hunting-horn.
208

III

What do ye, ye who bind
Love? Can Love be confined
By earthly bars or grates
Or bolts or brazen gates?

IV

Through walls the winged kiss flies,
And over gloom of skies:
Through foes that cluster round
It speeds without a sound:

V

Then it alights, and brings
Soft gladness on its wings.
What gaoler can descry
The winged kiss hovering nigh!

VI

What prison can retain
Love's plumes of golden grain?
What haunt of woe and death
Can bind Love's sky-sweet breath?
209

VII

At iron chains and steel
Love laughs,—and barriers reel
Drunken before his tread
And light about him shed.

VIII

The sweetest kiss man knows
Is that a woman throws
Through narrowing prison-bars,
So letting in the stars!

IX

So letting in the night
And all its boundless might:
So letting in the blue
That the great moon sails through.

X

The most triumphant lips
Are those which Love's mouth sips
With twenty guards beside,
And every guard defied!
210

XI

Love steals between all bars,
As steal through these the stars.
Foes wait in gaunt array?
Love comes another way!

XII

While every door is sure
And all the locks secure
Behold Love, woman-wise,
In at the window flies!
June, 1881.
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