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Sara Teasdale, comp. (1884–1933).
The Answering Voice: One Hundred Love Lyrics by Women. 1917.

“Yet for One Rounded Moment”

Edith Wharton

YET for one rounded moment I will be

No more to you than what my lips may give,

And in the circle of your kisses live

As in some island of a storm-blown sea,

Where the cold surges of infinity

Upon the outward reefs unheeded grieve,

And the loud murmur of our blood shall weave

Primeval silences round you and me.

If in that moment we are all we are,

We live enough. Let this for all requite.

Do I not know, some wingèd things from far

Are borne along illimitable night

To dance their lives out in a single flight

Between the moonrise and the setting star?