Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

Apologia (Author: Oscar Wilde)

p.409

1. 1] Is it thy will that I should wax and wane,
   2] Barter my cloth of gold for hodden grey,
   3] And at thy pleasure weave that web of pain
   4] Whose brightest threads are each a wasted day?
2. 5] Is it thy will—Love that I love so well—
   6] That my Soul's House should be a tortured spot
   7] Wherein, like evil paramours, must dwell
   8] The quenchless flame, the worm that dieth not?
3. 9] Nay, if it be thy will I shall endure,
   10] And sell ambition at the common mart,
   11] And let dull failure be my vestiture,
   12] And sorrow dig its grave within my heart.
4. 13] Perchance it may be better so—at least
   14] I have not made my heart a heart of stone,
   15] Nor starved my boyhood of its goodly feast,
   16] Nor walked where Beauty is a thing unknown.
5. 17] Many a man hath done so; sought to fence
   18] In straitened bonds the soul that should be free,
   19] Trodden the dusty road of common sense,
   20] While all the forest sang of liberty.
6. 21] Not marking how the spotted hawk in flight
   22] Passed on wide pinion through the lofty air,
   23] To where the steep untrodden mountain height
   24] Caught the last tresses of the Sun God's hair.
7. 25] Or how the little flower he trod upon,
   26] The daisy, that white-feathered shield of gold,
   27] Followed with wistful eyes the wandering sun
   28] Content if once its leaves were aureoled.
8. 29] But surely it is something to have been
   30] The best belovèd for a little while,
   31] To have walked hand in hand with Love, and seen
   32] His purple wings flit once across thy smile.
9. 33] Ay! though the gorgèd asp of passion feed
   34] On my boy's heart, yet have I burst the bars,
   35] Stood face to face with Beauty, known indeed
   36] The Love which moves the Sun and all the stars!