 | Poems and Sonnets |  |
144
“AND KEEP OUR SOULS IN ONE ETERNAL PANT.”
—Keats.
I
“In one eternal pant to keep our souls,”Said Keats; a poet's motto it might be,
To plunge for ever to a deeper sea
Of ecstasy, as each wave backward rolls,
Exacting pitiless incessant tolls
Of riper redder fruit from Love's sweet tree;
And, clearly, such the fittest life for me,
New wine each day from new provided bowls
Perpetually to sip, yet not to fill
My craving heart; and so it is, for you
Keep all my being in a constant thrill—
Thou hast creative power to renew
With every morn the ambrosial passionate dew
My eager lips are ever prone to spill;
147
II
And so from pant to stronger pant I flow,Even as my River Thames in downward course
Boils, whirls, and bubbles with a fiercer force,
In haste the unfettered open sea to know;
So in a great increasing volume go
My pulses, waxing hotter as the days
Make more apparent far my lady's praise,
And as the winter waneth; even so
The summer of my love is drawing nigh,
With sweet May-blossoms and the lilac bloom,
And all the streets made heavy with perfume,
And visions of a softer bluer sky;
So with the seasons, with the stream I sigh
And change and eddy, sparkle and consume.
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