The Broken Wing/The Fear of Love

​III. The Sanctuary

I. The Fear of Love

O Could my love devise A shield for you from envious lips and eyes That desecrate the sweetness of your days With tumults of their praise!
O could my love design A secret, sealed, invulnerable shrine To hide you, happy and inviolate, From covetous Time and Fate.
Love, I am drenched with fear Lest the uncounted avarice of the year Add to the triumph of all garnered grace The rapture of your face!
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I tremble with despair Lest the far-journeying winds and sunbeams bear Bright rumours of your luring brows and breath Unto the groves of Death.
What sanctuary can I pledge Whose very love of you is sacrilege? O I would save you from the ravening fire Of my own heart's desire!
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