Songs of the unblind Cupid

Chapter 5: THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.

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About This Book

A sequence of lyrical poems examines love in its many guises—passion, longing, joy, pain, idealized devotion and sensual desire—using vivid natural and musical imagery (flowers, vines, a violin, birds) and concise narrative vignettes. Voices shift between exuberant celebration and mournful reflection, probing youth, aging, fidelity, and redemption while sometimes invoking religious or mythic motifs. Language emphasizes intense sensory detail and rhythmic cadences that blend tenderness, eroticism, and ethical questioning. Short pieces range from playful satire to solemn consolation, together forming a compact, imagistic survey of romantic feeling and its contradictions.

THE FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.

The years roll on, and the head grows grey,

But the longing heart doth ever pray,

With a prayer too deep for words to say.

Love is the fountain of youth alway.

“Thou art old!” mocks Love, “and hast had thy day.”

But the heart protesteth:

“Nay, O nay!

My life is love, alway, alway,

And the human heart is young for aye.”

Love is a fountain of youth alway.

“Thou art old,” saith Love, “and thy debt must pay.”

But the heart makes answer:

“Nay, O nay!

My hunger groweth every day,

Grows stronger with eating the years away;

Age is for earnest and youth for play,

The hottest coals ’neath the ashes stay,

And the human heart is young for aye.”

Love is the fountain of youth alway.

A woman is a flower—

Test her by her fragrance.