T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
I Am the Song of Love
By Joseph T. Shipley (1893–1988)(1922) I AM the song of love. | |
| I murmur gently in the secret places. | |
| When the lovers breathe the gladness of the sky; | |
| When they laugh, and the cause of their mirth is hidden; | |
| When they are awing with the bird, adrift with the cloud, astir with the leaves and the blades of grass and the spring: | 5 |
| I am the song they sing. | |
| I am the purl of their caresses. | |
| I am the cry of the passion of love. | |
| I swell through the ardor of embracing; | |
| Tongue whispers me to tongue, and I rise in the breast of the maiden; | 10 |
| I throb in the arms that encircle; | |
| I beat in the legs that entwine; | |
| I climb to a roar of ecstatic flow, man to woman, | |
| The full-bellowed call of life. | |
| Before the panting diminish, and the blissful anguish die, | 15 |
| I am the passion cry. | |
| I am the rhythm of their silences. | |
| I am the sob of the sorrow of love. | |
| When the tigress haunts the jungle of her mind, solitary, baffled, | |
| When her mate is caged in convention, is exhibited upon the highways of life; | 20 |
| I am the moan of her loneliness, | |
| I am the howl of his rage. | |
| When the stars glow unheeded above a lone, bowed head; | |
| When longing lovers watch the studded air—each viewing other constellations; | |
| When the low bell of midnight falls on the listening, unexpectant ear, | 25 |
| And the lark proclaims anew the impotent day; | |
| When absence lays its hoar-frost on the soul; | |
| When death has come to rob: | |
| I am the sorrow-sob. | |
| I am the eternal ever-changing song of love. | 30 |