"Parting"

Parting
A Wordless Prayer

Lord, Lord, we cannot pray to-night, 

Our lips are reft of speech, 

But we two clinging, shaking, kneel, 

Hearts beating each on each. 

There are deep kisses on our lips, 

Deep with all chaste desire, 

And every vein is running full 

With keen, delicious fire. 

And oh, the pulses in our palms! ― 

Feel, God, how strong they beat! 

How can we bid our lips to pray 

In hours so silent-sweet? 

But though we cannot pray to-night, 

Each kiss is one deep plea 

That Thou wilt keep me true to him, 

And him―Lord, Lord! ―to me. 

"Parting" as it appears in Ella Higginson's When the Birds Go North Again (1898).