"LOVERS HAVE WEPT AND BEEN AFRAID..."

Lovers have wept and been afraid
because they found all beauty come
down to the biting of the spade
and the falling-back of loam.

But the wild blue-eyed unicorn
rages upon heraldic air;
the brooding eyes within us mourn
there.  You are burnt with beauty there.

The legend or the virgin dies;
the trembling beast beside her stands
watching the sun between her thighs
and the white garland of her hands.

Painted or dreamt her life and his,
her death and his, are steady-starred:
they have two immortalities,
the chevron of a sudden bird.