Songs of the unblind Cupid

Chapter 7: LOVE IS A VINE.

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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.

LOVE IS A VINE.

Love is a vine, they tell;

Ah, yes,

One tendril clingeth to Nell,

And another entwineth on Jess.

Of a truth it were well

That each should have separate hold,

I confess.

Should your trellis have only one post,

Your vine must be sharply pruned;

It cannot grow as it would,

And all luxuriance is lost;

Its bunches are very large,

But only a few are borne;

And should the one pillar give way,

Down the whole vine is torn,

Its leaves in ruin bestrewed,

Prostrate, dishevelled and swooned

Over the sward and the marge;

For many and many a day

Helpless, broken and cold—

Love is a vine, they tell.

Love is itself clear fire,

Flame perfect—only its objects,

These flicker and burn out.