For, whispering softly in my ear
Such gentle thanks as might allay
Love's tender shame, left on my brow,
And on each hand, a warm light kiss—
I feel them burn there even now—
But all my fetters fell at this.
I answered like an injured queen:
Its our own defense when we're surprised—
The way our weakness is disguised;
I said things that I could not mean,
Or ought not—since it was a lie
That love had not been in my mind;
'Twas in the air I breathed; the sky
Shone love, and murmured it the wind.
It had absorbed my soul with bliss;
My blood ran love in every vein,
And to have been beloved again
Were heavenly—so I thought till this
Unlooked-for answer to the prayer
My heart was making with its might.
Thus challenged, caught in sudden snare,
Like two clouds meeting on a height
And, pausing first in short strange lull,
Then bursting into awful storm,
Opposing feelings multiform,
Struggled in silence, and then, full
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