Life and Love

FAST this Life of mine was dying,

      Blind already and calm as death;

Snowflakes on her bosom lying,

      Scarcely heaving with the breath.

Love came by, and, having known her

      In a dream of fabled lands,

Gently stooped, and laid upon her

      Mystic chrism of holy hands;

Drew his smile across her folded

      Eyelids, as the swallow dips,...

Breathed as finely as the cold did,

      Through the locking of her lips.

So, when Life looked upward, being

      Warmed and breathed on from above,

What sight could she have for seeing,

      Evermore... but only Love?