In the Garden

They need no one, the two young lovers.

As if they were therefore somehow good

They stroll and strut and promenade

Their double solitude.

"Here is my lover and my hand;

Here in our eyes anticipate

The bed where blessed and cursed by all

The world we shall lie tonight.

"O friends, strangers who walk alone,

Doing your best to laugh and live,

We rather hope you will not resent

Our beauty, our youth and love."

O lovers, strangers, that I resent

Your passing beauty and youth is true,

But there is a love that is stronger and longer

Than what distinguishes you.

Fruit rounded by the sun must fall

In the autumn's heat, but a one-way love

Hangs an eternal listening jewel

In the cold womb of the cave.

Two locked in the sun can never know

The lowest heaven the highest hell

Of lovers who all night long alone

Encircle the garden wall.