Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/157

Rh

gave a lock of hair away

To a man, Dearest, except this to thee,

Which now upon my fingers thoughtfully

I ring out to the full brown length and say

"Take it." My day of youth went yesterday;

My hair no longer bounds to my foot's glee,

Nor plant I it from rose or myrtle-tree,

As girls do, any more. It only may

Now shade on two pale cheeks, the mark of tears,

Taught drooping from the head that hangs aside

Through sorrow's trick. I thought the funeral-shears

Would take this first; but Love is justified:

Take it thou,. . finding pure, from all those years,

The kiss my mother left here when she died.

soul's Rialto hath its merchandise;

I barter curl for curl upon that mart;

And from my poet's forehead to my heart,

Receive this lock which outweighs argosies,—

As purply black, as erst to Pindar's eyes

The dim purpureal tresses gloomed athwart

The nine white Muse-brows. For this counterpart,. .

The bay-crown's shade, Beloved, I surmise,

Still lingers on thy curl, it is so black!

Thus, with a fillet of smooth-kissing breath,

I tie the shadow safe from gliding back,

And lay the gift where nothing hindereth,

Here on my heart as on thy brow, to lack

No natural heat till mine grows cold in death.