Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
III. Loves BeginningsThe First Kiss
Thomas Campbell (17771844)H
Of a kiss at love’s beginning,
When two mutual hearts are sighing
For the knot there ’s no untying!
Love has bliss, but love has ruing;
Other smiles may make you fickle,
Tears for other charms may trickle.
Just as fate or fancy carries,—
Longest stays when sorest chidden,
Laughs and flies when pressed and bidden.
Bind its odor to the lily,
Bind the aspen ne’er to quiver,—
Then bind Love to last forever!
Of fresh beauty for its fuel;
Love’s wing moults when caged and captured,—
Only free he soars enraptured.
Or the ring-dove’s neck from changing?
No! nor fettered Love from dying
In the knot there ’s no untying.