How do I express the ways that I love thee?
Like this, beneath this hawthorn tree?
When the sap is rising, and dusk is falling,
In the violet light, with the nightjar calling.
With flickering firelight on all your features,
We make this love like forest creatures;
You are the wolf and I am your prey,
Our hunt begins in this month of May.
We\'ve stoked the flames and leapt the fire,
And tossed our woes upon the pyre,
My devotion to thee knows no bounds,
As we lie, entwined, upon the ground.
The boughs above us shift and sway,
Blossoming white on this feast day;
When the horned God takes his Goddess lover
In the same way that we take each other.
And our vows suffuse the soundless air,
Like the hawthorn petals in my hair.