WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
Here is a beautiful tribute to a woman from her lover:—
HALF WOMAN AND HALF DREAM
O, woman, you are not merely the handiwork of God, but also of men; these are ever endowing you with beauty from their hearts.
Poets are weaving for you a web with threads of golden imagery; painters are giving your form ever new immortality.
The sea gives its pearls, the mines their gold, the summer gardens their flowers to deck you, to cover you, to make you more precious.
The desire of men's hearts has shed its glory over your youth.
You are one half woman and one half dream.
And here, too, is the purest expression of passion from the lips of a woman:—
TELL ME, MY LOVER
Tell me if this be all true, my lover, tell me if this be true:
Is it true that my lips are sweet, like the opening bud of the first conscious love?
Do the memories of vanished months of May linger in my limbs?
Is it true, is it true, that your love travelled alone through ages and worlds in search of me?
That when you found me at last your age-long desire found utter peace in my gentle speech and my eyes and lips and flowing hair?
Is it then true that the mystery of the infinite is written on this little forehead of mine?
Tell me, my lover, if all this be true.
The sanctity of sex is unfortunately a phrase almost without meaning in the Western world, where physical
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