Sonnet CCLXXXVI:
I touched the limit of supremest bliss,
Knew joy’s whole secret on this golden day;
When in my arms my panting darling lay,
Daring my lips with lingering kiss on kiss.
Brand it upon my heart! Let me not miss
A single memory, not the faintest ray
Of that which made divine my burning clay,
And heaven a fancy to a world like this!
Nay, day of glory, bury in the past
Thy radiant head! lest in the coming night
Thou sting my exiled soul with thoughts too bright!
Or else, O wondrous vision, onward cast
Thyself into the future’s dreadful vast,
And o’er and o’er renew today’s delight.
