Fatal Interview
xi   

Not in the summer casket cool with pearls
Or rich with red corundum or with blue,
Locked, and key withheld, as other girls
Have given their loves, I give my love to you;
Not in a lovers'-know, not in a ring
Worked in such fashion, and the legend plain  —
Semper fidelis, where a secret spring
Kennels a drop of mischief for the brain:
Love in the open hand, no thing but that,
Ungemmed, unhidden, wishing not to hurt,
As one should bring you cowslips in a hat
Swung from the hand, or apples in her skirt,
I bring to you, calling out as children do:
"Look what I have! — And these are all for you."