T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
Sonnets to AureliaXIX. “Come, let us sigh a requiem over love”
By Robert Nichols (1893–1944)(From Aurelia & Other Poems, 1920) |
COME, let us sigh a requiem over love | |
| That we ourselves have slain in love’s own bed, | |
| Whose hearts that had courage to drink enough | |
| Lacked courage to forbid the taste they bred, | |
| Which body captained soon, till, in disgust, | 5 |
| These very hearts of bodily surfeit died, | |
| Poisoned by that sweet overflow of lust | |
| Whose past delight our substance deified. | |
| No courage, no, nor pleasure have we now, | |
| To our own frantic bodies are we tossed, | 10 |
| Only sometimes exhaustion will allow | |
| Us peace to observe the image of love’s ghost, | |
| With torturing voice and with hid face return | |
| Faintly, as even now, to bid us mourn. | |