Edgar Lee Masters

“ Making for change and death—but for life! Multiform, mysterious, exhaustless, It is not through you that our spirits become one— A bond in the flesh on earth, And mingled flames in this realm? We three, lovers, husbands of the same woman! First I, this woman that was, Who loved William and was his wife, And loved him none the less in death, Nor less when I became the wife, Of you, my adored Albert; Next I, this man William, Who loved you, Albert, in life, And next in death, Because you loved the Isabel I loved. ”

“ But how are you moved except for life That made a self of you, responding To sounds or scenes of remembered places, Or other spheres, perhaps? Life is a cage! Beauty a vision Of a freedom once enjoyed. ”

“ One life at a time, one world at a time, One dream for working out in life— But oh, the price we pay, my friends, For the coveted achievement! For as to the mating of bodies and souls, The planting of your garden, For food and delight in life, It comes to an idiosyncrasy If you stop to think it over: It's eyes of gray, or eyes of blue, It's a certain mouth, or color of hair, It's a nose that calls to something in you ”