Poem by Barcroft Henry Thomas Boake

A Song

I've a kiss from a warmer lover
                  Than maiden earth can be:
She blew it up to the skies above her,
                  And now it has come to me;
From the far-away it has come today
                  With a breath of the old salt sea.

She lay and laughed on a lazy billow,
                  Far away on the deep,
Who had gathered the froth for my lady's pillow -
                  Gathered a sparkling heap;
And the ocean's cry was the lullaby
                  That cradled my love to sleep.

Far away on the blue Pacific
                  There doth my lady roam,
That is oft-times gay, but as oft terrific:
                  Her jewels are beads of foam:
In a coral cave, where a blue-green wave
                  Keeps guard, is my lady's home.

She claps her hands, and her henchman hurries
                  West of the sunset sheen:
'Tis he who comes when a mist-wrack scurries,
                  Skirting the deep ravine;
And my heart is stirred by the loving word
                  He carries me from my queen.

A drop distilled from a lotos flower -
                  That is the magic key
To unlock the cage, and my soul has power
                  To gather itself and flee,
At my love's behest, where she waits her guest
                  In a palace beneath the sea.

Joy is ours that is almost anguish:
                  Pain that is almost sweet:
We kiss; and the ocean creatures languish
                  Jealously at our feet;
The sight grows dim, and the senses swim
                  When I and my lady greet.

There to dream, while the soul is swooning
                  Under a woven spell -
Hushed to sleep by her tender crooning
                  Learnt from the ocean swell -
There to rest on her jewelled breast,
                  To love and be loved as well!

1. How Polly Paid for Her Keep
2. The Box-Tree's Love
3. Where the Dead Men Lie
4. Kelly's Conversion
5. Babs Malone

Alfred Douglas A Song ("Steal from the meadows, rob the tall green hills")

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