Page:Poems, Household Edition, Emerson, 1904.djvu/144

108 Not allowed to any liege;

For Cupid goes behind all law,

And right into himself does draw;

For he is sovereignly allied,—

Heaven's oldest blood flows in his side,—

And interchangeably at one

With every king on every throne,

That no god dare say him nay,

Or see the fault, or seen betray:

He has the Muses by the heart,

And the stern Parcæ on his part.

His many signs cannot be told;

He has not one mode, but manifold,

Many fashions and addresses,

Piques, reproaches, hurts, caresses.

He will preach like a friar,

And jump like Harlequin;

He will read like a crier,

And fight like a Paladin.

Boundless is his memory;

Plans immense his term prolong;

He is not of counted age,

Meaning always to be young.

And his wish is intimacy,

Intimater intimacy,

And a stricter privacy;

The impossible shall yet be done,

And, being two, shall still be one.