Think you that I will drain the dregs of Love,
I who have quaffed the sweetness on its brink?
Now by the steadfast burning stars above,
Better to faint of thirst than thuswise drink.
What! shall we twain who saw love’s glorious fires
Flame toward the sky and flush Heaven’s self with light,
Crouch by the embers as the glow expires,
And huddle closer from mere dread of night?
No! cast love’s goblet in oblivion’s well,
Scatter love’s ashes o’er the field of time!
Yet, ere we part, one kiss whereon to dwell
When life sounds senseless as some feeble rhyme.
Lo! as lips touch, anew Love’s cresset glows,
And Love’s sweet cup refills and overflows.
Alfred Austin (1835 – 1913) was an English journalist and a poet who was appointed Poet Laureate in 1896, after an interval following the death of Tennyson, when the other candidates had either caused controversy or simply refused the honor. It was claimed that he was being rewarded for his support for the Conservative leader Lord Salisbury in the General Election of 1895.