Explore "The Kiss" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
One kiss, dear Maid! I said and sighed -- / Your scorn the little boon denied. / Ah why refuse the blameless bliss? / Can danger lurk within a kiss?
Yon viewless wanderer of the vale, / The Spirit of the Western Gale, / At Morning's break, at Evening's close / Inhales the sweetness of the Rose, / And hovers o'er the uninjured bloom / Sighing back the soft perfume. / Vigour to the Zephyr's wing / Her nectar-breathing kisses fling; / And He the glitter of the Dew / Scatters on the Rose's hue. / Bashful lo! she bends her head, / And darts a blush of deeper Red!
Too well those lovely lips disclose / The triumphs of the opening Rose; / O fair! O graceful! bid them prove / As passive to the breath of Love. / In tender accents, faint and low, / Well-pleased I hear the whispered "No! " / The whispered "No" -- how little meant! / Sweet Falsehood that endears Consent! / For on those lovely lips the while / Dawns the soft relenting smile, / And tempts with feigned dissuasion coy / The gentle violence of Joy.