Page:Poems, Volume 1, Coates, 1916.djvu/226



OW glad you must be to lie at rest,

Forgetful of him whom you loved so,

Of him who loved you not:

To leave all the watching and waiting,

The hoping and doubting, behind you—

To know no more of the longing

That burned like a fire at your heart!

How glad you must be to lose yourself—

Utterly, utterly, Sappho,

In sleep that is sleep indeed!—

To turn from the pain and the passion,

The dreams of delight that, on waking,

But mocked you and left you more lonely—

The visions that ever betrayed!

How glad, after all—oh, how glad to forget

The golden one, dread Aphrodite!—

The laughter deceitful and sweet

Wherewith from her own glowing bosom

She gave the red rose that consumed you,