Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume II. Love. 1904. | | | | VIII. Wedded Love | | Possession | | E. Robert Bulwer, Lord Lytton (Owen Meredith) (1831–1891) |
| | | A POET loved a Star, | |
| And to it whispered nightly, | |
| “Being so fair, why art thou, love, so far? | |
| Or why so coldly shine, who shin’st so brightly? | |
| O Beauty wooed and unpossest! | 5 |
| O, might I to this beating breast | |
| But clasp thee once and then die blest!” | |
| That Star her Poet’s love, | |
| So wildly warm, made human; | |
| And leaving, for his sake, her heaven above, | 10 |
| His Star stooped earthward, and became a Woman. | |
| “Thou who hast wooed and hast possest, | |
| My lover, answer: Which was best, | |
| The Star’s beam or the Woman’s breast?” | |
| “I miss from heaven,” the man replied, | 15 |
| “A light that drew my spirit to it.” | |
| And to the man the woman sighed, | |
| “I miss from earth a poet.” | | | | |
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