Canto 18Thou didst mistake
Book 2. Part Two - Baroda Circa 1898 – 1902
Thou didst mistake, thy spirit’s infant flight
Opening its lovely wings upon the sun
Paused o’er the first strong bloom that met thy sight
Thinking perhaps it was the only one.
5But all this fragrant garden was beyond.
Winds came to thee with hints of honey; day
Disclosed a brighter hope than this unsunned
Thought-sheltered heart and called thee far away.
Thou didst mistake. Must I then rage, grow ill,
10With tortured vanity and think it love,
Miscall with brutal names my lady’s will
Fouling thy snowwhite image, O my dove?
Is not thy kiss enough, though only one,
For all eternity to live upon?