| J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921. | | | | Forbidden Lave | | By Lady Currie (Violet Fane) (1843–1905) |
| | | OH, love! thou that shelterest some | |
| ’Neath thy wings, so white and warm, | |
| Wherefore on a bat-like wing | |
| All disguisèd didst thou come | |
| In so terrible a form? | 5 |
| As a dark forbidden thing, | |
| As a demon of the air— | |
| As a sorrow and a sin, | |
| Wherefore cam’st thou thus to me, | |
| As a tempter and a snare? | 10 |
| When the heart that beats within | |
| This, my bosom, warm’d to thee, | |
| Was it from a love of sinning, | |
| From a fatal love of wrong, | |
| From a wish to shun the light? | 15 |
| Nay! I swear at the beginning | |
| Hadst thou sung an angel’s song,— | |
| Had this wrong thing been the right, | |
| Thou hadst seem’d as worth the winning, | |
| And with will as firm and strong | 20 |
| I had lov’d with all my might. | | | | |
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