Pleasure of eyes and of lips and of hands,

Of the mind that seizes and understands

That the joy of the senses bears no ill

To the hands that take for the spirit’s fill,

As the lips of two lovers inclosing meet

To agree in a moment on aim so sweet,

In commitment to goodness of life made great

By their nakedest beauty and holiest state

Of the man the god and the goddess she,

Who are starters and ends of morality.

These heroical two who out-leapt the crowd

And were never made ugly with guilt and shroud,

And who never accepted that joy was bad,

Or that pleasure was cover for deeper sad,

These most splendid and clean and out-laughing two—

These are the reasons the world is new!