FOR A PICTURE BY E. BURNE JONES <br /> <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />Habes tota quod mente petisti <br />Infelix. <br /> <br /> <br />IN deep vague spaces of the lonely sea <br />She deemed her soulless life was almost fair, <br />Yet ever dreamed that in the upper air <br />Lay happiness--supreme in mystery; <br />Then saw him--out of reach as you I see-- <br />Worshipped his strength, the brown breast broad and bare, <br />The arms that bent the oar, and grew aware <br />Of what life means, and why it is good to be; <br />And yearned for him with all her body sweet, <br />Her lithe cold arms, and chill wet bosom's beat, <br />Vowed him her beauty's unillumined shrine: <br />So I--seeing you above me--turn and tire, <br />Sick with an empty ache of long desire <br />To drag you down, to hold you, make you mine! <br /> <br /> <br />II <br /> <br />Attained at last--the lifelong longing's prize! <br />Raped from the world of air where warm loves glow, <br />She bears him through her water-world below; <br />Yet in those strange, glad, fair, mysterious eyes <br />The shadow of the after-sorrow lies, <br />And of the coming hour, when she shall know <br />What she has lost in having gained him so, <br />And whether death life's longing satisfies. <br />She shall find out the meaning of despair, <br />And know the anguish of a granted prayer, <br />And how, all ended, all is yet undone. <br />So I--I long for what, far off, you shine, <br />Not what you must be ere you could be mine, <br />That which would crown despair if it were won.<br /><br />Edith Nesbit<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-depths-of-the-sea/
