Mandragora/A Question

by John Cowper Powys

For works with similar titles, see Question.

A QUESTION

WHAT do I want of you? You fill
  The air about me with delight.
A power stronger than my will
   Draws me towards you day and night.
And yet I do not ask to press
   Even your hand in a caress.

Your presence vague and nebulous
   Moves with me as I cross the street;
Your sweetness like an angelus
   Makes holy ground beneath my feet.
In every lovely form I pass
   You shape yourself as in a glass.

What do I want of you? I see
   Your other lovers pine to drain
The passion of your ecstasy
   In kisses desperate as rain,
And yet, although I am not blind,
   Not to that harbour steers my mind.

What do I want of you? God knows!
   I only know it is too high,
Too rare a venture to disclose,
   Save to the vast and starless sky.
Nothing I want, yet when we meet,
   I think the world hears my heart beat.