Dora Sigerson Shorter

1866-1918 / Ireland

Love

Deep in the moving depths
Of yellow wine,
I swore I'd drown your face,
O love of mine;
All clad in yellow hue,
So fair to see,
You crouched within my cup
And laughed at me.
Twice o'er a learned page
I turned and tossed,
For would I not forget
The love I lost?
All stern and robed in gloom,
You read it too;
I could not see the words—
Saw only you.
Within the hungry chase
I thought to kill
You, love, who haunted thus
Without my will;
But in the gentle gaze
Of fawn and deer,
Your eyes disarmed my hand,
And shook my spear.

Beneath a maid's dark lash
I swore you'd drown,
Sink in the laughing blue—
Give in, go down
But no! you bathèd there
Right joyously,
And from her liquid eyes
You laughed at me.
102 Total read