T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Sonnets to AureliaXIII. Sometimes I think you know not what love is
By Robert Nichols (18931944)(From Aurelia & Other Poems, 1920) |
SOMETIMES I think you know not what love is | |
But only pang of amorous delight: | |
The terrible resuscitation of the kiss, | |
And the prolonged love-agonies of the night. | |
Oh, when I so do think, then I could sear | 5 |
These loving lips with the consuming coal, | |
Submit these limbs to the machine to tear | |
And ruin my body to secure your soul. | |
For rather would I perish as a man, | |
And hateful as a maniac seem to you, | 10 |
Than that our joy, which in true love began, | |
Should, in abuse, turn to its birth untrue. | |
Wherefore take heed lest, in your passion strong, | |
Your acts read right but your intention wrong. | |