TO A GREAT ACTRESS.SHE has taken my heart, though she knows not, would care not.It thrills at her voice like a reed in the wind;I would taste all her agonies, have her to spare not,Sin deep as she sinned,To be tossed by the storm of her love, as the oceanRocks vessels to wreck; to be hers, though the costWere the loss of all else: for that moment’s emotionContent to be lost!To be, for a moment, the man of all men to her,All the world, for one measureless moment complete;To possess, be possessed! To be mockery then to her,Then to die at her feet!
SHE has taken my heart, though she knows not, would care not.It thrills at her voice like a reed in the wind;I would taste all her agonies, have her to spare not,Sin deep as she sinned,
To be tossed by the storm of her love, as the oceanRocks vessels to wreck; to be hers, though the costWere the loss of all else: for that moment’s emotionContent to be lost!
To be, for a moment, the man of all men to her,All the world, for one measureless moment complete;To possess, be possessed! To be mockery then to her,Then to die at her feet!