Frequencies of Emotional Wavelengths.

[alasanon]

Today I don't feel like using my own words, and so I'm going to post a poem by a man I respect rather a lot, and who writes words to which I occasionally feel a great kinship.

So, without much further ado--
Prince Lir's Song to Lady Amalthea,
as written by Peter S. Beagle
Reprinted without permission, will be removed if requested.

 "When I was a young man , and very well thought of,
 I couldn't ask aught that the ladies denied.
 I nibbled their hearts like a handful of raisins,
 And I never spoke love but I knew that I lied.

 "But I said to myself, 'Ah, they none of them know
  The secret I shelter and savor and save.
  I wait for the one who will see through my seeming,
  And I'll know when I love by the way I behave.'

 "The years drifted over like clouds in the heavens;
 The ladies went by me like snow on the wind.
 I charmed and I cheated, deceived and dissembled,
 And I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned, and I sinned.

 "But I said to myself, 'Ah, they none of them see
  There's part of me pure as the whisk of a wave.
  My lady is late, but she'll find I've been faithful,
  And I'll know when I love by the way I behave

 "At last came a lady both knowing and tender,
 Saying, 'You're not at all what they take you to be.'
 I betrayed her before she had quite finished speaking,
 And she swallowed cold poison and jumped in the sea.

 "And I say to myself, when there's time for a word,
  As I gracefully grow more debauched and depraved,
  'Ah, love may be strong, but a habit is stronger,
  And I knew when I loved by the way I behaved.'"