SOFT, small, and sweet as sunniest flowers <br /> That bask in heavenly heat <br />When bud by bud breaks, breathes, and cowers, <br /> Soft, small, and sweet. <br /> <br />A babe's hands open as to greet <br /> The tender touch of ours <br />And mock with motion faint and fleet <br /> <br />The minutes of the new strange hours <br /> That earth, not heaven, must mete; <br />Buds fragrant still from heaven's own bowers, <br /> Soft, small, and sweet. <br /> <br />A velvet vice with springs of steel <br /> That fasten in a trice <br />And clench the fingers fast that feel <br /> A velvet viceÑ <br /> <br />What man would risk the danger twice, <br /> Nor quake from head to heel? <br />Whom would not one such test suffice? <br /> <br />Well may we tremble as we kneel <br /> In sight of Paradise, <br />If both a babe's closed fists conceal <br /> A velvet vice. <br /> <br />Two flower-soft fists of conquering clutch, <br /> Two creased and dimpled wrists, <br />That match, if mottled overmuch, <br /> Two flower-soft fists--- <br /> <br />What heart of man dare hold the lists <br /> Against such odds and such <br />Sweet vantage as no strength resists? <br /> <br />Our strength is all a broken crutch, <br /> Our eyes are dim with mists, <br />Our hearts are prisoners as we touch <br /> Two flower-soft fists.<br /><br />Algernon Charles Swinburne<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-clasp-of-hands/
