Antagonists

WHAT though the neutral sea sever us twain?

In the still night your soul in mine I take;

Your eyes, hilarious with passion, wake,

And love's delirium is mine again,

When all your body's warmth swirled in my brain —

Your face uplifted like a pallid lake

Where in my eager lips their thirst could slake,

With deep-sighed, langourous kisses, keener than pain.

Then suddenly through passion's rosy mists

A shudder trickled, like a stream of blood:

In a grim pause we felt and understood.

The everlasting war that was our fate —

The pitiless struggle and primeval hate

Of old implacable antagonists.