At Ninus' Tomb

"Here he lies, full bathed in red,
A sword to cut the slender thread.
The one to whom through stone I spoke
The very same my heart who broke
When cruelly did the fates decree
A lion's mouth to take from me."

She says who braved the walk alone
To the spot, a night when no moon shone,
Agreed upon a fortnight hence
As converse held they through the fence,
Or wall, more proper, by a crack-
He'd call to her, she'd whisper back.

"Sweet Thisbe! Oh
That I might see
Thine eyes alight,
Mercuric fired,
Smile so slight,
And how thou stand'st,
And how attired."

"My love, though
From my vision 'scured,
I pray eternally be kept
My promise, living,
And my word,
Lest Death, oath giving
Thee accept."

This life not large enough for we,
Exchanging more than pleasantry,
Pass words alone through granite apse,
Lest love should make the wall collapse.
She yearns to hear his heart, and so
She bids him tell her 'ere he go.

A promise and a poem prepared
He'd brought; she asked, he likewise shared.
The one, to meet in fourteen days;
The other, "Let me count the ways."
A doom outside the city walls,
Where his sweet verse she now recalls:

"O hapless wall!
Why bring us apart?
And yet I leave with thee
All my heart.
Till dawn breaks again,
And I with it..."