Explore "Denial" by Gilbert Parker on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
But is it so that I must never kiss / Thee on the brow, or smooth thy silken hair?
Never close down thine eyelids with Love's prayer, / Or fold my arms about my new-found bliss?
Must I unto the courses of my age / Worship afar, lest haply I profane / The temple that is now my holy fane, / For which my song is given as a gage?
Shall I who cry to all, "Come not within / The bounds where I my lady have enshrined; / I am her cavalier"; shall I not win
One dear caress, the rich exchequer find / Of thy soft cheek? If thou command, my lips / Shall find surcease but at thy fingertips.