Seven seals

by D. H. Lawrence

　　

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SINCE this is the last night I keep you home,Come, I will consecrate you for the journey.Rather I had you would not go. Nay come,I will not again reproach you. Lie backAnd let me love you a long time ere you go.For you are sullen-hearted still, and lackThe will to love me. But even soI will set a seal upon you from my lip,Will set a guard of honour at each door,Seal up each channel out of which might slipYour love for me. I kiss your mouth. Ah, love,Could I but seal its ruddy, shining springOf passion, parch it up, destroy, removeIts softly-stirring crimson welling-upOf kisses! Oh, help me, God! Here at the sourceI'd lie for ever drinking and drawing inYour fountains, as heaven drinks from out their courseThe floods. I close your ears with kissesAnd seal your nostrils; and round your neck you'll wear—Nay, let me work—a delicate chain of kisses.Like beads they go around, and not one missesTo touch its fellow on either side. And thereFull mid-between the champaign of your breastI place a great and burning seal of loveLike a dark rose, a mystery of restOn the slow bubbling of your rhythmic heart.Nay, I persist, and very faith shall keepYou integral to me. Each door, each mystic portOf egress from you I will seal and steepIn perfect chrism. Now it is done. The mortWill sound in heaven before it is undone.But let me finish what I have begunAnd shirt you now invulnerable in the mailOf iron kisses, kisses linked like steel.Put greaves upon your thighs and knees, and frailWebbing of steel on your feet. So you shall feelEnsheathed invulnerable with me, with sevenGreat seals upon your outgoings, and wovenChain of my mystic will wrapped perfectlyUpon you, wrapped in indomitable me.

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