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Holy Sonnets
- Ohio University Press
- Chapter
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Holy Sonnets I I did not see you even when I went From the long afternoon’s forgetfulness Into a night of knowing the distress Of questioning your presence and intent. If you I look for, when my discontent Is more than tentative unhappiness, Are not the mere reply of mind in stress, Be with me casual and concomitant As gentle breathing in a midnight sleep, When no one bids the breast to rise and fall. Be as a quiet fire of which I keep Enduring warmth in blood the veins recall, When love, released from too much freedom, tries The film of cold on hands and lips and eyes. You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. II If I had stood waiting for you to come, Expecting your arrival momently With bells and horns, the sounding of a drum— All the mechanic signs of victory— Of course I had deceived myself, because I knew that I must travel to the end Of me, departing thence to that which was No part of me. While I could still contend “Perhaps you’ll not be there,” I still could pause, Always before the word that you prescribe, And fail to find you. For, though you, the same Who waits upon the border, circumscribe Infinity, denial in me was Infinity and bore a different name. You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. ...