Poems (Tennyson, 1833)/O Love, Love, Love!

by Alfred Tennyson

φαἰνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴπος θεοῑπον
Εμμεν ἀνίρ.Sappho.

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I.
O Love, Love, Love! oh, withering might!
O sun, that at thy noonday height
Shudderest, when I strain my sight,
Throbbing thro' all thy heat and light!
  Lo! falling from my constant mind,
  Lo! parched and withered, deaf and blind,
  I whirl like leaves in roaring wind.

II.
Last night, when some one spoke his name,
From my swift blood, that went and came,
A thousand little shafts of flame
Were shivered in my narrow frame.
  O Love, O fire! once he drew
  With one long kiss my whole soul thro'
  My lips, as sunlight drinketh dew.

III.
Before he mounts the hill, I know
He cometh quickly: from below
Sweet gales, as from deep gardens, blow
Before him, striking on my brow.
  In my dry brain my spirit soon,
  Downdeepening from swoon to swoon,
  Faints like a dazzled morning moon.

IV.
The wind sounds like a silver wire,
And from beyond the noon a fire
Is poured upon the hills, and nigher
The skies stoop down in their desire;
  And, isled in sudden seas of light,
  My heart, pierced thro' with fierce delight,
  Bursts into blossom in his sight.

V.
My whole soul waiting silently,
All naked in a sultry sky,
Droops blinded with his shining eye,
I will possess him or will die.
  I will grow round him in his place,
  Grow—live—die looking on his face,
  Die, dying clasped in his embrace.