Page:Poems, Alan Seeger, 1916.djvu/65

 Love's soul that is the depth of starry skies

Set in the splendor of one upturned face

To beam adorably through half-closed eyes;

Love's body where the breadth of summer days

And all the beauty earth and air comprise

Come to the compass of an arm's embrace,

To burn a moment on impassioned lips

And yield intemperate joy to quivering finger-tips,

They knew; and here where morning-glories cling

Round carven forms of carefullest artifice,

They made a bower where every outward thing

Should comment on the cause of their own bliss;

With flowers of liveliest hue encompassing

That flower that the beloved body is—

That rose that for the banquet of Love's bee

Has budded all the æons of past eternity.

But their choice seat was where the garden wall,

Crowning a little summit, far and near,

Looks over tufted treetops onto all

The pleasant outer country; rising here

From rustling foliage where cuckoos call

On summer evenings, stands a belvedere,

Buff-hued, of antique plaster, overrun

With flowering vines and weatherworn by rain and sun.

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