Poems (Greenwell)/Love Birds
LOVE BIRDS.
IN A POLYTECHNIC EXHIBITION.
"For likely hearts composed of stars concent
Are these—whom Heaven did at the first ordain
And made out of one mould the more t' agree;
Love have they harboured since their first descent
Out of their heavenly bowers, where they did ace
And know each other here beloved to be."
Spenser.
Are these—whom Heaven did at the first ordain
And made out of one mould the more t' agree;
Love have they harboured since their first descent
Out of their heavenly bowers, where they did ace
And know each other here beloved to be."
Spenser.
Mine eyes, 'mid all these wonders may not choose
But fix on ye, meek pair, so closely prest
For warmth against each other, breast to breast,
Till all their green and golden couplets fuse,
And run in one the many-mingling hues,
Whereon your heads lie, drooped and sunk in rest,
With eyes half closed, yet straying never, lest
Their gaze its one accustomed object lose.
Now do ye mind me of two spirits, cast
On life, 'mid all its strangeness new and old,
That having found each other out at last,
No longer rove, but mutually enfold
Soft plume with plume that blends and mingles fast,
The while they keep each other from the cold!
But fix on ye, meek pair, so closely prest
For warmth against each other, breast to breast,
Till all their green and golden couplets fuse,
And run in one the many-mingling hues,
Whereon your heads lie, drooped and sunk in rest,
With eyes half closed, yet straying never, lest
Their gaze its one accustomed object lose.
Now do ye mind me of two spirits, cast
On life, 'mid all its strangeness new and old,
That having found each other out at last,
No longer rove, but mutually enfold
Soft plume with plume that blends and mingles fast,
The while they keep each other from the cold!