His Mistress Replies

Don’t speak to me of the rose

Those petals curled in deceitful folds

Don’t you cast up to me

The lily’s virgin purity

Put Excalibur away

I am no damsel in distress

The glint of gilded armour

Never dazzled me

If the gleam of my eyes

Are as the sunbeams, bright

Beware you shed no shadow

No.

I wish to hear no lies from you

Only this:

That you and I will lie

Side by side

Eye to beating eye

Forever.