The Conservative (Lovecraft)/July 1918/Two Loves
Two Loves
(After, and with apologies to, Miss Elsie Alice Gidlow in the June Vagrant.)
By Consul Hasting
I have two loves, who haunt me unceasingly.
Which shall I choose?
One is ugly to men's sight, and arouses repulsion in them;
Not so to me; for I know the true heart within.
Yes, he is ugly and repulsive to the many--
His robust mien and his plebeian companions dishonour him.
But they are as he:
For his heart is as pure gold, the gold
Scorned in sham by the would-be poetic, but ever true and useful.
He is constant, and I could love him forever;
Yea, with dishonour stamped on his brew by the mob, I yet do love him.
For his heart is as the heart of a thrifty and comely woman sought by all of thought.
He hath a hard skin, and is difficult of acquaintance;
But to him who searcheth beneath, he is a rich mine of delicious treasure.
In my sensuous dreams I behold him, and long for him;
When all the world is heartless and I am aweary of it,
Then do I long for him.
The other I would shun; for he is traitorously fair and beauteous:
But he draws me to him inevitably, as the raft through many streams to the ocean.
His soul burneth as the hot torrents that prompt love--
Ever youthful and daring in heart, but changing ere ultimately carefree;
Inspiring hesitant fear at a distance, but enticing and ever victorious.
He is not constant,
Except as he forceth me to everlasting constancy;
For he is exacting.
He draws me to him and I drink of his luscious beauty--
But O the aftermath! The satient afterwhile!
He would destroy me!
He has become a part of my soul, and meaneth my ruin;
And yet I should die without him.
His beauty sparkles, and is given fastidious care.
His speech flows swiftly and fluently, and is the language of all who are subject to his sway.
Yea, him I long for passionately, and the other is only a comfort.
I have two loves who woo me unceasingly;
One is bologna and the other Scotch Whiskey;
Which shall I take?