Love scatters oil
On Life’s dark sea,
Sweetens its toil, —
Our helmsman he.
Around him hover
Odorous clouds,
Under this cover
His arrows he shrouds.
The cloud was around me,
I knew not why
Such sweetness crowned me,
While Time shot by.
No pain was within,
But calm delight,
Like a world without sin,
Or a day without night.
The shafts of the god
Were tipped with down,
For they drew no blood,
And they knit no frown.
I knew of them not
Until Cupid laughed loud,
And saying “you’re caught,”
Flew oft in the cloud.
O then I awoke
And I lived but to sigh,
Till a clear voice spoke,—
And my tears are dry.
— The Dial (July 1840) p. 72
