Classic Poem

ON THE LESBIAN HEADLAND

We together, high o'er the shadowy water,
Thou and I — the wings of the sea-gulls near us, —
Smoulder with love; — I am the burning daughter
Favored of Eros.

Lovely Phaon! ah, thou art fairer, younger;
Such the barbed spear darted by Time to hurt me;
Wearied at last; sick of my endless hunger,
Thou wilt desert me.

Then a maiden, dove-like and humbly duteous,
She, ah, some day, she with her bloom will take thee;
Were I fair as Venus, or still more beauteous
Thou wouldst forsake me!

Better to leap far in the depths of ocean,
Sheer from cliff-edge down to the dreaded Kraken,
There to forget utterly all emotion,
Than live forsaken!