that enormous emptiness carved out of such tiny beings as we are asks to be filled; the need for the new love is faithfulness to the old
When I don’t hear from him it’s as if I have died … as if the air has been sucked out of my lungs and I’m left desolate.
Ask yourself, my love, whether you are not very cruel to have so entrammelled me, so destroyed my freedom. Will you confess this in the letter? You must write immediately, and do all you can to console me in it—make it rich as a draught of poppies to intoxicate me—write the softest words and kiss them that I may at least touch my lips where yours have been. For myself I know not how to express my devotion to so fair a form: I want a brighter word than bright, a fairer word than fair. I almost wish we were butterflies and liv’d but three summer days—three such days with you I could fill with more delight than fifty common years could ever contain.
