Hahamongna_0195

ON A LOST OPPORTUNITY.

We might, if you had willed, have conquered heaven.

Once only in our lives before the gate

Of Paradise we stood, one fortunate evening,

And gazed in sudden rapture through the grate.

And, while you stood astonished, I, our fate

Venturing, pushed the latch and found it free.

There stood the tree of knowledge fair and great

Beside the tree of life. One instant we

Stood in that happy garden, guardian-less.

My hands already turned towards the tree

And in another moment we had known

The taste of joy and immortality

And been ourselves as gods. But in distress

You thrust me back with supplicating arms

And eyes of terror, till the impatient sun

Had time to set and till the heavenly host

Rushed forth on us with clarions and alarms

And cast us out for ever, blind and lost.

- from The Love Sonnets of Proteus

 

Done