Yes! I will play, but it must be with fire,
1
Though only for an hour should be the game—
I care not if I burn, so you be flame;
But bring me not the small change of desire.
Yes! I will sail, if you fear not to drown,
5
If you fear not to swim the unfathomed sea,
To dive into its moonlit heart with me,
Hand in my hand, down deep, and still deep down.
Yes! I will fly, if you fear not the height,
9
Nor yet the depth, of all that blue abyss,—
Love spans it in the lightning of a kiss—
For you and me be there no lesser flight.
I will not make a toy of this strange thing
13
That, at your touch, goes calling through my veins,
The god each petty amorist profanes—
Your little kisses to the winds I fling.
Nor of your beauty will I honey take,
17
Sipping and tasting of you like a bee;
Let other smaller folk their small love make—
'Tis a far other love for you and me.
But if you come to me with wild lost lips,
21
In a great darkness made of a great light,
Then shall our wings mount in an equal flight,
Nor fear, though all the firmament eclipse.
Though from the zenith to the pit we fall,
25
Breast against breast, and eyes adream on eyes,
We shall be one with suns and seas and skies—
The power and the glory of it all.