The Eulogy of Love

Oh wanderer upon the un-trodden path,

Where dost thou go with merry laugh,

What dost thou recognize in gleeful faith

That loves me not, and keeps me unsafe?

What song sing’st thou that I know not,

What merry chords and words are they?

Tell me how to untie the knot

Around my heart, what is the way?

So he walked up to me,

That gleaming day of fading spring,

He sayeth: “ I once spoke to thee,

But thou harked me not, verse-king,”

“Thou choseth to abide within the shades,

As thou dost now, beneath the trees,

Lamenting thy loss in the light that fades

Like a mourner doth on his weakened knees,”

“Thou choseth to flee from thy fate,

Deserting friends and family;

Withdrawing to thy haven as a bait

To misery and devouring enmity”.

“Thou choseth to destroy thy heart,

Thy dreams, thy hopes and truest sentiments

Diminishing the honour of thy art

And thy life’s truest merriments”.

“Like Hero plunged in the fathomless gloom,

Of noble Leander upon the death,

Thou thrusted love in darkest gloom

When she told thee that final breath.”

“Yet still thou art perplexed by love alone,

How vicious can the feeling be?

What thou had promised the unknown

Its fulfilment wasn’t for thou to see.”

“Love is as whimsical as life itself,

An influence no man can oust,

Despite thy heart and psyche’s wealth

Its zealous candle never shall be doused.”

“Its beacon shall endure through time,

Bristling and seething in obscurity,

Despite the bestiary of human grime

Nothing shall ever disgrace its purity!”