Page:An epic of women and other poems (IA epicofwomenother00osha).pdf/151

Or passionless, or lacking any strength
To seize their fair worlds passing them so nigh
Rather than linger in some sickly trail
Of sweetness left behind and die of shame?
O all ye Messalinas of old time—
Ye Helens, Cleopatras, ye Dalilahs,
Ye Maries, ye Lucrezias, Catharines—
Fair crowned or uncrowned—courtezans alike
Who played with men a calculated game—
Your moves their heart-wounds, deaths and ruins—sure
Of your inconstancy and their soft loves,
Had I been lover in the stead of them,
Methinks the histories of you had been changed,
And some of your worst falsenesses redeemed
By flawless faithfulness to one last love.

But now I am content, I have love here;
And I thank God for love—yea, is it sweet?
Yea, is it best of all his gifts to man?
—I see her splendid smile there—feel her arms
Already coming round me!—Who but I
Can answer? Who but I have had it whole