I saw the first pear as it fell— the honey—seeking, golden—banded, the yellow swarm was not more fleet than I,

I first tasted under Apollo’s lip… love and love sweetness, I, Evadne; my hair is made of crisp violets or hyacinth which the wind combs b…

YOU are as gold as the half—ripe grain that merges to gold again, as white as the white rain that beats through

Weed, moss—weed, root tangled in sand, sea—iris, brittle flower, one petal like a shell is broken,

Will you glimmer on the sea? Will you fling your spear—head On the shore? What note shall we pitch? We have a song,

Over and back, the long waves crawl and track the sand with foam; night darkens, and the sea takes on that desperate tone

The light passes from ridge to ridge, from flower to flower— the hepaticas, wide—spread under the light

Stars wheel in purple, yours is no… as Hesperus, nor yet so great a st… as bright Aldeboran or Sirius, nor yet the stained and brilliant… stars turn in purple, glorious to…

Each of us like you has died once, has passed through drift of wood—l… cracked and bent and tortured and unbent

Thou art come at length More beautiful Than any cool god In a chamber under Lycia’s far coast,

Silver dust lifted from the earth, higher than my arms reach, you have mounted. O silver,

Bear me to Dictaeus, and to the steep slopes; to the river Erymanthus. I choose spray of dittany, cyperum, frail of flower,

So you have swept me back, I who could have walked with the l… above the earth, I who could have slept among the l… at last;