DEN MEST FÖRBJUDNA AV SYSKONKÄRLEKAR?

Away, away, it is the air

That stirs among the withered leaves;

Away, away, it is not there,

Go, hunt among the harvest-sheaves.

There is a bed in shape as plain

As from a hare or lion's lair

It is the bed where we have lain

In anguish and despair.

Away and take the eagle's eye,

The tyger's smell,

Ears that can hear the agonies

And murmurings of hell;

And when you there have stood

By that same bed of pain,

The groans are gone, the tears remain.

Then tell me if the thing be clear,

The difference betwixt a tear

Of water and of blood.*

-- William Wordsworth

*) diktfragment ur Wordsworths Alfoxden-anteckningar. A. S. Byatt, Unruly Times, sid. 20-21. Är detta en beskriving av ett incestuöst förhållande? undrar Byatt.