52
How long the veil of eve and dawn
About thy beauty shall be drawn?
Thy cheek display: make whole to me
Fhis incomplete epiphany.
O glad consuming! rapture fine!
Thyself wouldst beg of me for wine
If unto thee I did relate
The intoxication of my state.
I added to the song of life
The counterpoint of fiery strife;
Scatter the dew that quenches drowth
Into the tulip’s thirsty mouth.
Mind searched the volume thro’ and thro
Love found at once the subtle clue;
The clever bird will ever gain
Beneath the snare the hidden grain.
Where is the song, and he that sung?
Words are a lyre pretence has strung;
I draw towards the camel-train
The erring beast without a rein.
In riddles yet I spake, forsooth;
Now is the time for naked truth;
Do thou declare, where I shall lead
My fellow-travellers in their need.