The Angels Were Generous

The Seduction

...She walks in beauty, like the night
of cloudless limes and starry skies
and all that’s best of dark and bright
meet in her aspect and her eyes...
    Her interest and attention
    was given over, but with pause.
    Oh the power of the words,
    well-spoken in their cause.

...Everything I do echoes
with the laughter and the voice of you...
    Aye, and though it tempted her,
    she need refrain from touch.
    Her past was truly haunting her,
    its memories hurting much.

...Day and night it haunts me,
The kiss I never had...
    He held within his arms
    the promise and the gain.
    Her reticence was fleeing,
    melting with her pain.

...He saw her lift her eyes,
he felt the soft hands light caressing,
and heard the tremble of her voice,
as if a fault confessing...
    The power in those words
    was a lure she couldn’t fight:
    Her soul, her mind, her heart
    were bathed in words and might.

...Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle:
Why not I with thine?...
    He saw the path to heart
    was through the very soul.
    Those words in all their glory
    were his bridge without a toll.

...You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign...
    Ah, at last he won
    that prize he dearly sought.
    Thus caressed and gently wooed,
    She not so fiercely fought.

...Nothing now seems true,
Only that ‘twas Heaven
Just to be with you...
    There was no thought of what to be
    with dawning grey and light:
    Truly well and goodly loved
    she was that fateful night.