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One Look

I.

Have not I been as Love through all these years and given
The bloom of flowers and light of stars to thee?
Have not I raised thee high within song's bright-blue heaven? —
What hast thou given to me?

II.

Lo! flower on flower and star on star the bright months bring thee,
And songs on songs have floated o'er the sea.
My harp were traitor indeed if ever it failed to sing thee:
What wilt thou give to me?

III.

Love's Despair

Oh infinite delight when never more
The white seas shine before us on the sand, —
When at the touching of Death's calm sweet hand
Colour forsakes the hills, and light the shore!
Yes: then shall all life's wild fierce pain be o'er.
Nought shall arouse us from our perfect sleep:
At woman's touch no lingering pulse shall leap
Nor at bright Summer's footstep at the door.

Whom woman cannot rouse is more than dead,
Death's infinite peace shall fall upon each soon:
Then in the timeless land where star nor moon

First Love

O first love, — tender holy blind pure phase! —
For then it seemeth to the soul that one
And but one woman liveth, — that the sun
Finds but one blossom worthy of his gaze.
Is it a snowdrop? — Then by green hedge-ways
We think no gleaming rose-bush ever grew!
White is our flower, — so never harebells blue
The sun loved, nor the rich gorse' golden blaze!

Ah! — Some day blind eyes open and we see
On every side far fairer than the old
New blossoms springing, — marvelling we behold
Petunia, cowslip, heath, anemone: —

The Perfect Lover

It is not love to love the fair
And feast one's eyes on beauty rare,
For beauty all men's gaze enthrals,
Nor for a lover's rapture calls.

Nay, he alone true love doth know
Who pays no heed to outward show,
And though his mistress homely be
Still finds in her the perfect she.

Love Alone

The poet, victor over words,
Coy wayward things,
Deems he can snare the stars, those gold-plumed birds,
Because he sings!

He dreams of endless conquest, he —
While others plod
He must win thunder-music from the sea,
Epics from God.

The fragrance of the lips of June
In sunlit dales
His song must steal. The slender white-breast moon
His hand unveils.

Because one hour of mortal breath
He makes sublime,
His fond heart dreams of victory over death

The Triumph of Love

Once Love was plain before me, for at night,
Sleeping, my eyes were sundered, and, awake,
Like some sweet moon reflected in a lake,
Surrounded with a silver stream of light,
I saw my lady's presence flame in sight,
And, after, came a sense of roses cast
In soft encompassing luxuriance fast
Over my silent body, and a bright
And strange unveiling of the spirit's form
And immortality made visible:
And death and sin and feebleness and hell,
Being black, shone white beneath the fragrant storm
Of snows that clothed her body sweet and warm,

The Higher Love

If I may not see thee much,
Sweet at least it is to touch
Hand and hand;
Sweet at least it is to know
That a heart can understand
And that sympathy can grow.

If I may not win thee now,
I can worship thy pure brow
Where the hair
Coils so lovingly for crown —
Can rejoice to find thee fair,
And may win for thee renown.

That is much to do indeed:
If the world shall give its heed
As it goes
With swift footstep on its way,