Elinor Wylie (1885-1928)
Valentine
1Too high, too high to pluck
2My heart shall swing.
3A fruit no bee shall suck,
4No wasp shall sting.
5If on some night of cold
6It falls to ground
7In apple-leaves of gold
8I'll wrap it round.
9And I shall seal it up
10With spice and salt,
11In a carven silver cup,
12In a deep vault.
13Before my eyes are blind
14And my lips mute,
15I must eat core and rind
16Of that same fruit.
17Before my heart is dust
18At the end of all,
19Eat it I must, I must
20Were it bitter gall.
21But I shall keep it sweet
22By some strange art;
23Wild honey I shall eat
24When I eat my heart.
25O honey cool and chaste
26As clover's breath!
27Sweet Heaven I shall taste
28Before my death.
Online text copyright © 2009, Ian Lancashire (the Department of English) and the University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.
Original text: Elinor Wylie, Nets to Catch the Wind (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Co., 1921): 46-47. Robarts Library PS 3545 Y45N4. Cf. Collected Poems of Elinor Wylie, foreword by William Rose Benét (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945): 41-42. PS 3545 Y45 A17 Robarts Library
Publication date note:
RPO poem editor: Ian Lancashire
RP edition: 2004
Recent editing: 1:2004/6/16
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