Classic Poem

Warned by a thousand dreams, I took no heed,
But failed to fence my soul away from thee;
Mine inner being guessed what thou couldst be,
Brooding upon an unacknowledged need —
And now the hush'd thought trembles toward a deed:
For sudden beauty bursteth over me
As a great wave fraught with magic of the sea,
And I, who was a rock, I seem a reed!

But even a tower were shaken with this stress
Of gathered tides unloos'd in love's assault —
Of gathered tides: more than thy loveliness
O'erwhelms and puts my bleak resolves to fault:
All women loved before, all loves denied,
Weigh in the surge that batters down my pride!