The Ring of Amethyst

Chapter 46: “I KNOW MYSELF THE BEST-BELOVED OF ALL.”

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About This Book

A collection of lyric poems that moves between intimate reflections on love, longing, and domestic feeling and wider meditations on faith, doubt, memory, and artistic purpose. Short, varied pieces contrast joy and pain, sometimes adopting persona or dedicatory addresses and sometimes using nature and classical imagery to frame emotional states. The overall tone balances tender sincerity with contemplative restraint, turning commonplace moments and moral concerns into compact, image-driven meditations on the inner life.

“I KNOW MYSELF THE BEST-BELOVED OF ALL.”

I know myself the best-beloved of all

The many dear to him; yet not indeed

Because of his swift thought for every need

Of my love’s craving; I could scarcely call

My very own the power to enthrall

Such chivalry as his, that turns to heed

Each slightest claim, nor thinks to ask the meed

Of love returned where love’s sweet offerings fall.

Not then because of all he is to me;

But by this surer token; when he earns

The right to his own happiness, or yearns

For some sweet, sudden, answering sympathy,

Ah me! with what quick-beating heart I see

For his own joy it is to me he turns!