Who wrote the poem with the first line dear if some god lonely in paradise?

Answer 1

The poem is called The Choice and was written by Jan Struther which was the pen name of Joyce Anstuther or Joyce Maxine Graham and Joyce Placzek (same person). It goes like this: Dear, if some god (lonely in Paradise

And jealous of my two-fold ecstasy)

Were to demand one half as sacrifice-

My love for you, or else your love for me:

O then I'd choose that you should need me less,

So my own body still for you might crave;

And all your passion, all your tenderness

I'd lose, my own heart's tenderness to save.

I'd sooner hear the ardour in your voice

Grow false and dull, than feel my own lips falter

On old endearments. This should be my choice,

If choice must be, to deck the high god's altar.

For to love, loveless, is a bitter pill:

But to be loved, unloving, bitterer still.