Classic Poem

I have looked on a face that has looked in my heart,
As deep as the moon ever fathoms a wave;
As uncomprehended it came to depart,
While a sense of its glory was all that it gave.

Where she passed the Alp blossoms grew pallid and shrank,
As a taper in sunlight sinks faint and aghast;
And now o'er her path swims a terrible blank,
A gulf in the air where her beauty hath passed.

But her light in my heart, which no time can eclipse,
Seems to brighten and smile in the joy it confers;
And a voice which is shed from aerial lips
Breathes a music I know which can only be hers!