If you were a Rose and I were the Sun / Radclyffe Hall

If you were a Rose and I were the Sun

                           (Song)

If you were a Rose and I were the Sun
    What then, little girl, what then?
I'd kiss you awake when day had begun,
    My sweet little girl, what then?
I'd waken you out of your valley of dreams
And open your heart with my passionate beams,
Till you lifted your face to my ruddiest gleams,
    My own little girl, yes then.

If you were the Earth and I were the Dew,
    What then, little girl, what then?
Why surely the thing that all lovers would do,
    My sweet little girl, what then?
I'd steal through the twilight, o'er valley and lea,
And flood you with kisses, both tender and free
Till the soul in you throbbed with the love that's in me,
    My own little girl, yes then.

But I am a man and you are a maid,
    What then, little girl, what then?
You're cold in your pride, and I am afraid,
    My sweet little girl, what then?
If you cannot love me and I cannot die
There's nothing in life but the ghost of a sigh,
And the day growing dark 'neath a colourless sky;
    My own little girl, yes then.

~~
Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943)
from 'Twixt Earth and Stars, 1906

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Radclyffe Hall biography