Love

by

Love (1911) traces the many disguises of love — snake, dove, bright flash, weeping violin — before revealing it as something fearful and unknowable. "Yet, sure and secret, / It's far from peace and joy."
Heart, we will forget him!
Heart-shaped lock, tobacco label, 1887

A snake, it coils
Bewitching the heart.
Day after day, coos
A dove on the white sill.

A bright flash in frost,
Drowsy night-scented stock…
Yet, sure and secret,
It's far from peace and joy.

It knows how to weep sweetly
In the violin's yearning prayer;
And is fearfully divined
In a stranger's smile.