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Home  »  The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse  »  Robert Browning (1812–1889)

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

In a Gondola

Robert Browning (1812–1889)

THE MOTH’S kiss, first!

Kiss me as if you made believe

You were not sure, this eve,

How my face, your flower, had pursed

Its petals up; so, here and there

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 entered gay

My heart at some noonday,

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.