Possession

E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891)

A POET loved a Star,

And to it whispered nightly,

“Being so fair, why art thou, love, so far?

Or why so coldly shine, who shin’st so brightly?

O Beauty wooed and unpossest!

O, might I to this beating breast

But clasp thee once and then die blest!”

That Star her Poet’s love,

So wildly warm, made human;

And leaving, for his sake, her heaven above,

His Star stooped earthward, and became a Woman.

“Thou who hast wooed and hast possest,

My lover, answer: Which was best,

The Star’s beam or the Woman’s breast?”

“I miss from heaven,” the man replied,

“A light that drew my spirit to it.”

And to the man the woman sighed,

“I miss from earth a poet.”