| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | Sapphic Ode XXXIII: “Maids, not to you my mind doth change” | | By Michael Field (Katherine Harris Bradley) (1846–1914) |
| | (From Long Ago, 1889)
MAIDS, not to you my mind doth change; | |
| Men I defy, allure, estrange, | |
| Prostrate, make bond or free: | |
| Soft as the stream beneath the plane | |
| To you I sing my love’s refrain; | 5 |
| Between us is no thought of pain, | |
| Peril, satiety. | |
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| Soon doth a lover’s patience tire, | |
| But ye to manifold desire | |
| Can yield response, ye know | 10 |
| When for long, museful days I pine, | |
| The presage at my heart divine; | |
| To you I never breathed a sign | |
| Of inward want or woe. | |
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| When injuries my spirit bruise, | 15 |
| Allaying virtue ye infuse | |
| With unobtrusive skill: | |
| And if care frets ye come to me | |
| As fresh as nymph from stream or tree, | |
| And with your soft vitality | 20 |
| My weary bosom fill. | | | | |
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