Maurice Browne. Love Is More Cruel Than Death. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

Love Is More Cruel Than Death

By Maurice Browne


For H IF your heart’s desire were an apple,
I would place it in your hand;
From the tree of life I would pluck it
In Eden land.

If your heart’s desire were a sword of steel,	5
I would fashion it in the flame
And inlay letters upon it
And a star’s name.

If your heart’s desire were carven jade,
I would grave for you with my pen	10
The learning and loneliness and yearning
And wisdom of men.

But your heart’s desire is my friend,
My mother’s son, the brother of me,
The friend I wear in my heart,	15
For fair is he;
He is fair, but far to seek,
And free.

And I have no power in my hands,
No help, no healing, no gift for you,	20
Nothing, nothing, save no word spoken
Between us two.