| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | A Lady to a Lover | | By Roden Berkeley Wriothesley Noel (1834–1894) |
| | | IF the sun low down in the West, my friend, | |
| Fill’d earth with fiery wine, | |
| If a hand were on my breast, my friend, | |
| And lips were laid on mine, | |
| And we together | 5 |
| In summer weather | |
| Lay in a leafy dell, | |
| Could the weariness, | |
| Or the long distress, | |
| Or any fiends from hell, | 10 |
| Wipe out that hour of rest, my friend, | |
| And the rapture all divine? | |
| Then if thy blade were buried deep | |
| Within this heart of mine, | |
| From the warm whiteness fierce would leap | 15 |
| My fiery blood like wine; | |
| Earth all about the West, my friend, | |
| After orgies of rich wine, | |
| Wan lying in the sun’s decline, | |
| And I in arms of thine, my friend, | 20 |
| In dying arms of thine! | | | | |
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