No less passionate or intense, this new

Tenderness; no less obsessive, never

More powerful nor joyful love for you

Than at this very moment. It ever

Increases, as if the rain of the world

Were contained in the basin of my heart,

A great, deep pool in which my water girl

Might swim.  And if she, by any trick or art

Of mine persuaded can never be, as

Full, my heart has no room for injury;   

Placid waters, luminous as topaz

And silent as your affections soothe me,

Warm me:  make me contented, calm and brave,

But never less than your absolute slave.