| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | To Olive | | By Alfred Douglas (1870–1945) |
| | | I HAVE been profligate of happiness | |
| And reckless of the world’s hostility, | |
| The blessèd part has not been given to me | |
| Gladly to suffer fools, I do confess | |
| I have enticed and merited distress, | 5 |
| By this, that I have never bow’d the knee | |
| Before the shrine of wise Hypocrisy, | |
| Nor worn self-righteous anger like a dress. | |
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| Yet write you this, sweet one, when I am dead: | |
| ‘Love like a lamp sway’d over all his days | 10 |
| And all his life was like a lamp-lit chamber, | |
| Where is no nook, no chink unvisited | |
| By the soft affluence of golden rays, | |
| And all the room is bathed in liquid amber.’ | | | | |
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