| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | Sonnets to Aurelia
X. “When, having written much, I reach my span” | | By Robert Nichols (1893–1944) |
| | (From Aurelia & Other Poems, 1920) |
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WHEN, having written much, I reach my span, | |
| And you, that you, shall halt beside my grave, | |
| Whom I to delirium loved as living man, | |
| Mourn not that me, though, mayhap, the World have | |
| Honoured my tomb with register of worth | 5 |
| In difficult assessment of my due, | |
| Recorded my rarer services on earth, | |
| And grief protested, likely enough true. | |
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| Mourn not that me, but gazing on the mould, | |
| Summon to memory my eyes’ keen light, | 10 |
| My thorough hands, my arms so hard in hold, | |
| My lips whose kisses burned away the night: | |
| For, though the World may curious worths discover | |
| My pride it is I was your well-prized lover. | | | |
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