Miranda to Ophelia
in pity and surprise:
“What are those wrinkles on your brow
those rings about your eyes?
Surely life is only love
and love is paradise.”
Ophelia to Miranda:
“Life and love are hell.
But the heart’s misery
only the heart can tell
—mind and tongue break beneath it
and die in doggerel”
Miranda to Ophelia:
“How can I understand?
Life was a still morning
cool on brow and hand
till flesh and soul flowered
in those of Ferdinand.”
Ophelia to Miranda:
“I too knew the clear dawn;
my bud was near to blossom.
But the thunder-stone
struck my world and left me
broken and alone.”
Miranda to Ophelia:
“Then you would forget?
Had you your life to make again
You would never meet—?”
Ophelia to Miranda:
“I have not said that.”