Here are the two poems of Lord Alfred Douglas which were read out in Court, on account of which the prosecution¹ sought to incriminate Oscar Wilde. My readers can judge for themselves the value of any inference to be drawn² from such work by another hand. To me, I must confess, the poems themselves seem harmless and pretty — I had almost said, academic and unimportant.
Two Loves
To “The Sphinx”

Two loves I have of comfort and despair

That like two spirits do suggest me still,

My better angel is a man right fair,

My worse a woman tempting³ me to ill. — Shakespeare.

I dreamed I stood upon a little hill,

And at my feet there lay a ground, that seemed

Like a waste garden, flowering at its will

With flowers and blossoms. There were pools that dreamed

Black and unruffled; there were white lilies

A few, and crocuses, and violets

Purple or pale, snake-like fritillaries

Scarce seen for the rank grass, and through green nets

Blue eyes of shy pervenche winked⁴ in the sun.

And there were curious flowers, before unknown,

Flowers that were stained with moonlight, or with shades

Of Nature’s wilful⁵ moods; and here a one

That had drunk in the transitory tone

Of one brief moment in a sunset; blades

Of grass that in an hundred springs had been

Slowly but exquisitely⁶ nurtured⁷ by the stars,

And watered with the scented⁸ dew long cupped

In lilies, that for rays of sun had seen

Only God’s glory, for never a sunrise mars

The

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