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Poems (Kennedy)/Raison D'Etre

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4590586Poems — Raison D'EtreSara Beaumont Kennedy

RAISON D'ÊTRE
WHAT matters the red of a laughing lip
  If it go unkissed?
And where is the worth of small white hands
  If a lover's clasp be missed?

Red lips may's well be pinched and pale
  If fates are all unkind,
And small white hands go convent-sworn
  If eyes of men be blind.

For beauty is hostage for sweets of life
  Since time began to move,
And the raison d'être of living at all
  Is ever and always love.