Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
Robert Browning. 18121889723. In a Gondola
THE moth’s kiss, first! | |
Kiss me as if you made me believe | |
You were not sure, this eve, | |
How my face, your flower, had pursed | |
Its petals up; so, here and there | 5 |
You brush it, till I grow aware | |
Who wants me, and wide ope I burst. | |
The bee’s kiss, now! | |
Kiss me as if you enter’d gay | |
My heart at some noonday, | 10 |
A bud that dares not disallow | |
The claim, so all is render’d up, | |
And passively its shatter’d cup | |
Over your head to sleep I bow. |