Love
By Dora Sigerson Shorter
Deep in the moving depths
Of yellow wine,
I swore Id 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 oer 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 maids dark lash
I swore youd drown,
Sink in the laughing blue-
Give in, go down:
But no! you bathd there
Right joyously,
And from her liquid eyes
You laughed at me.