By Nirina Mignon
Ere did I petition most sedulously,
Since the cedar cloister of matrimony
Yours hath been by priestly creed
Solder’d, even by the espies of your youth up.
Sway far the wine of envy pour’d,
Lest it embitter by the venom of asps
The oil of your Chrismation, hence the garland
Of your unblemish’d heart which peers
Thine spirit as out of a clovis window.
The warpike will set its hoist
As the thornèd cackles trump dalliance,
And the semy voice of the ballroom page
Sound out in colors of an adverse Legion,
“What in dusklight is hushed,
We in our revel will shout.”
Be not deceived, their kisses are violence,
Their airy bodes the cudgel of barbarians.
Whenas on homely straw sanctimony is set heavenbound,
Who cleaved unto grieves neither bruise nor enmity;
Her embrace a woolen robe of starry condensation;
Her chastely love the flooding protasia of sea and firmament.