Page:Poems, Volume 2, Coates, 1916.djvu/114

98 More had I been to you—dearer?...

Deep in my heart a voice answers,

Healing the sense of unworth,

Whispering comfort:—

Love takes no counsel of prudence;

Wherefore men, timid and doubting,

Marvelling oft at his choice,

Charge him with blindness;

But—this believe!—not Apollo,

Clothed in his glory celestial,

Bears such a light in his breast

As that which Eros

Holds in the heart of his darkness,

Guards as a torch never failing,

Given to guide him where waits

His sole desire!"