T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Sonnets to AureliaX. When, having written much, I reach my span
By Robert Nichols (18931944)(From Aurelia & Other Poems, 1920) |
WHEN, having written much, I reach my span, | |
And you, that you, shall halt beside my grave, | |
Whom I to delirium loved as living man, | |
Mourn not that me, though, mayhap, the World have | |
Honoured my tomb with register of worth | 5 |
In difficult assessment of my due, | |
Recorded my rarer services on earth, | |
And grief protested, likely enough true. | |
Mourn not that me, but gazing on the mould, | |
Summon to memory my eyes’ keen light, | 10 |
My thorough hands, my arms so hard in hold, | |
My lips whose kisses burned away the night: | |
For, though the World may curious worths discover | |
My pride it is I was your well-prized lover. | |