Classic Poem

I.

Sweet Poesy, I love thee; as a bride
Plays with a lover's locks and crowns his hair
With kisses, finding him exceeding fair,
So do thou prattle, sweet one, by my side,
And let me on thy gentle converse glide
As softly as a swallow on the air;
Be kind to me, let me some secrets share;
Thou knowest for how long my soul hath sighed
After thy Beauty, shall I not attain
One day the inner vision of thy face?
Are all a poet's passionate pleadings vain?
— I care for nothing else if but thy grace
Be present, making summer of each place,
Wringing a melody out of every pain.

II.

Let us be joined hand in hand and go
Along the secret dim mysterious shore
Where wave succeedeth wave for evermore,
Each following each with an incessant flow
Of music most bewitching, — let us row
Beside strange banks with a half-sleepy oar
Under a moon of magic, and explore
The world together, say, shall it be so?
The glamour of the mornings and the nights
Of sacred summer we will make our own,
My Poesy, — the laughter of the dawn,
The music from the heart of midday drawn,
All lusty loves ecstatic and delights,
And, best of all for me, thy silvery tone!