O COULD my love devise A shield for you from envious lips and eyes That desecrate the sweetness of your days With tumults of their praise! O could my love design A secret, sealed, invulnerable shrine To hide you, happy and inviolate, From covetous Time and Fate. Love, I am drenched with fear Lest the uncounted avarice of the year Add to the triumph of all garnered grace The rapture of your face! I tremble with despair Lest the far-journeying winds and sunbeams bear Bright rumours of your luring brows and breath Unto the groves of Death. What sanctuary can I pledge Whose very love of you is sacrilege? O I would save you from the ravening fire Of my own heart's desire! |