| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | The Kiss of Consummation | | By George Sterling (1869–1926) |
| | (1921)
LO! Thou has granted us for Thee a name, | |
| But never, Lord, shall there be name for this | |
| The storm and sacrament of love’s abyss; | |
| Nor shall the mind conceive nor man’s tongue frame | |
| Nor Music in her farthest flight proclaim | 5 |
| The tale of that intolerable bliss | |
| When breathless lips meet in the final kiss, | |
| And mouth on mouth melts to incarnate flame. | |
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| When, lest the astounding racks of bliss destroy | |
| The body with its ecstasy alive,— | 10 |
| The maddened flesh grown infinite with joy, | |
| Peace sends her Lethe to the reeling brain, | |
| Ere the inexorable flame revive | |
| And Love that slew sound trumpets o’er the slain. | | | | |
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