The Sacred Flame [poem by William Blocksidge (William Baylebridge)]

[Editor: This poem by William Blocksidge (also known as William Baylebridge) was published in Songs o’ the South (1908).]

V.

The Sacred Flame

I looked upon a maiden’s breast;
It seemed to me a holy fane,
Whose sacrificial fires did wrest,
By turns, my peace and pain.

I looked deep in a maiden’s eyes;
And, gazing there, I seemed to see
The flames from that pure altar rise
In loveliest majesty.

I looked upon a maiden’s breast;
I looked deep in a maiden’s eyes —
O tell me, can a heart’s unrest
Be broken ere it dies?

Source:
William Blocksidge, Songs o’ the South, London: Watts, 1908, p. 25

Editor’s notes:
ere = (archaic) before (from the Middle English “er”, itself from the Old English “aer”, meaning early or soon)

fane = a church or temple