Dirge for Aoine and other poems :: :: University of Virginia Library

The garden lay about us twain,
Hoarding its sweets up for the rain;
We clung together, you and I,
And heard the minutes hurrying by.
Heart against heart beat heavily;
Your eyes through twilight sought for mine;
My lips drank love from yours like wine.

Our lips together met and clung—
Our love stood beautiful and young
And watched us while the minutes spun
Webs of delight not yet undone,
While our lips, kissing, would not part,
While all the night beat like a heart
Fuller of fire than is the sun
And one great star and only one
Above us for a lantern hung.

My hand in yours so closely lay,
I felt your pulse beat like my own;
I breathed your breath, and in my brain
The seed of your own thought was sown.
The garden walls seemed far away;

xliv

The scent of flowering mint was blown
About us in the gloaming gray.

Twilight and scent for us became
Delicate dreams, and for our sake
No bat or buzzing chafer came
The happy silences to break.
We kissed, and to the lighted room
Came, carrying with us like perfume
As lovely as the rose's name,
The memory of the twilight sweet
In shining eyes and laggard feet.