On the Nature of Love

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt

1840 to 1922

Poem Image
On the Nature of Love - Track 1

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You ask my love. What shall my love then be? 
A hope, an aspiration, a desire? 
The soul’s eternal charter writ in fire 
Upon the earth, the heavens, and the sea? 
You ask my love. The carnal mystery 
Of a soft hand, of finger-tips that press, 
Of eyes that kindle and of lips that kiss, 
Of sweet things known to thee and only thee? 
You ask my love. What love can be more sweet 
Than hope or pleasure? Yet we love in vain. 
The soul is more than joy, the life than meat. 
The sweetest love of all were love in pain, 
And that I will not give. So let it be. 
—Nay, give me any love, so it be love of thee.