What Then Is Love?

                  I.

When hearts in love are held apart,

     Cast out by fate from Cupid’s reign;

When side by side, yet peace denied,

     What then is love I ask, but pain?

                     II.

When hands that burn to clasp for aye

     Feel not the magic touch how brief;

And fingers ache their thirst to slake,

     What then is love, I ask, but grief?

                     III.

When souls cry out by night and day,

     In voiceless sobs their love to tell;

And echoes die with every sigh,

     What is love, I ask, but hell!

Aug. 21, ‘98