Impressions: A Book of Verse/Must I Then Wound Thee?

by Lilla Cabot Perry

 

MUST I THEN WOUND THEE?

MUST I then wound thee? Firm I hold the knife
Yet 'twixt it and thy heart I fling my life.
Then strike, since strike I must, and gladly feel,
As through my hot heart goes the chilling steel,
That e'er it pierce thy heart, as pierce it must,
My breast has caught the first force of the thrust,
And thus shall rob the steel of its cold sting,
Ere it reach thee, warmed by the streams that spring
From my love's fount, so dear it shall have
grown Fresh from my heart thou 'It welcome it to thine own.