YOURS is the sullen sorrow The disgrace is also mine; Your love was intense and thorough, Mine was the love of a growing flower For the sunshine. You had the power to explore me, Blossom me stalk by stalk, You woke my spirit, you bore me To consciousness, you gave me the dour Awareness -- then I suffered a balk. Body to body I could not Love you, although I would. We kissed, we kissed though we should not. You yielded, we threw the last cast, And it was no good. You only endured, and it broke Mt craftsman's nerve. No flesh responded to my stroke; So I failed to give you the last Fine torture you did deserve. You are shapely, you are adorned But opaque and null in the flesh; Who, had I but pierced with the thorned Full anguish, perhaps had been cast In a lovely illumined mesh. Like a painted window; the best Fire passed through your flesh, Undrossed it, and left it blest In clean new awareness. But now Who shall take you afresh? Now who will burn you free From your body's deadness and dross, Since the fire has failed in me? What man will stoop in your flesh to plough The shrieking cross? A mute, nearly beautiful thing Is your face, that fills me with shame As I see it hardening, I should have been cruel enough to bring You through the flame. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE EXILE TO HIS WIFE by JOSEPH BRENAN WHEN THE GREAT GRAY SHIPS COME IN [AUGUST 20, 1898] by GUY WETMORE CARRYL TO R. B. by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS TO MY SISTER by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH BLEUE MAISON by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE FESTUBERT SHRINE by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN A PRAYER by CLARENCE M. BURKHOLDER FOUR SONGS BY WAY OF CHORUS TO A PLAY: 4. INCOMMUNICABILITY OF LOVE by THOMAS CAREW |