They look’d up to the sky, whose floating glow
Spread like a rosy ocean, vast and bright;
They gazed upon the glittering sea below,
Whence the broad moon rose circling into sight;
They heard the wave’s splash, and the wind so low,
And saw each other’s dark eyes dartling light
Into each other – and, beholding this,
Their lips drew near, and clung into a kiss;
A long, long kiss, a kiss of youth, and love,
And beauty all concentrating like rays
Into one focus, kindled from above;
Such kisses as belong to early days,
Where heart, and soul, and sense, in concert move,
And the blood ‘s lava, and the pulse a blaze,
Each kiss a heart-quake,-for a kiss’s strength,
I think, it must be reckon’d by its length.
By length I mean duration; theirs endured
Heaven knows how long – no doubt they never reckon’d;
And if they had, they could not have secured
The sum of their sensations to a second:
They had not spoken; but they felt allured,
As if their souls and lips each other beckon’d,
Which, being join’d, like swarming bees they clung -
Their hearts the flowers from whence the honey sprung.
Don Juan
by George Gordon, Lord Byron