ON YOUR PROTECTIVE WING

Thy thought has drawn in the sand the omnipotent trace of thy swan-feet. A coral star thy fair eye bore! In a desert of sand, we two, half shy, clasped each other's hand, And waited the patient intimacy, Only to greet, and silently, to echo the all-pervading emotion: the heart-title of our immortality! 

The sea-foams, licking the shapeless rocks, embrace them gracefully, stretching; dreams thought forgotten, dreams past, come to life again, and then vanish again. My feet shyly trace your footsteps, and the surface holds shapes of fine-grained sand. 

But what else could I have done here, when you were long gone, and I thought of you only through your brain waves? More than all was said by thy ever-honour'd, chattering mouth, That condemned and chastised me in the day of Doom, Thou canst not willfully find an antidote To honest Truth, once made a prisoner! 

I have been in all the changeable matter: in thy joy and sorrow, among the waterfalls of thy eyes' tears! And yet in thy excessive levity thou hast not esteemed me! Invisible, I am still watching your priceless life, and still I cannot know it myself: Why must I, like an ancient protector, cower after thee?

If I had committed a sin against thee, thou shouldst have felt it long ago: for thy heart beat and beat like a madman's! - We have become each other's dearest and most grievous poisons: Thou didst tempt me with the sweetness of chocolate, and I wore the chains of my embracing compliments proudly, while thou didst give me a chance!