TO SARA
by: Samuel Taylor Coleridge
(1772-1834)
- NE kiss, dear maid! I said and sighed--
- Your scorn the little boon denied.
- Ah why refuse the blameless bliss?
- Can danger lurk within a kiss?
- Yon viewless Wanderer of the vale,
- The Spirit of the Western Gale,
- At Morning's break, at Evening's close,
- Inhales the sweetness of the Rose,
- And hovers o'er the uninjured Bloom
- Sighing back the soft perfume.
- Vigour to the Zephyr's wing
- Her nectar-breathing Kisses fling;
- And He the glitter of the Dew
- Scatters on the Rose's hue.
- Bashful lo! she bends her head,
- And darts a blush of deeper Red!
- Too well those lovely lips disclose
- The triumphs of the opening Rose;
- O fair! O graceful! bid them prove
- As passive to the breath of Love.
- In tender accents, faint and low,
- Well-pleased I hear the whispered "No!"
- The whispered "No"--how little meant!
- Sweet falsehood that endears Consent!
- For on those lovely lips the while
- Dawns the soft relenting smile,
- And tempts with feigned dissuasion coy
- The gentle violence of Joy.
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