We held the book together timidly, Whose antique music in an alien tongue Once rose among the dew-drenched vines that hung Beneath a high Castilian balcony. I felt the lute strings' ancient ecstasy,...
The winds have grown articulate in thee, And voiced again the wail of ancient woe That smote upon the winds of long ago: The cries of Trojan women as they flee, The quivering moan of pale Andromache,...
Was ever any face like this before, So light a veiling for the soul within, So pure and yet so pitiful for sin? They say the soul will pass the Heavy Door, And yearning upward, learn creation's lore,...
Oh flower-sweet face and bended flower-like head! Oh violet whose purple cannot pale, Or forest fragrance ever faint or fail, Or breath and beauty pass among the dead! Yea, very truly has the poet said,...
Carved in the silence by the hand of Pain, And made more perfect by the gift of Peace, Than if Delight had bid your sorrow cease, And brought the dawn to where the dark has lain,...
Francesca's life that was a limpid flame Agleam against the shimmer of a sword, Which falling, quenched the flame in blood outpoured To free the house of Rimino from shame,...
Tho' I am very old and wise, And you are neither wise nor old, When I look far into your eyes, I know things I was never told: I know how flame must strain and fret Prisoned in a mortal net;...
I have remembered beauty in the night, Against black silences I waked to see A shower of sunlight over Italy And green Ravello dreaming on her height; I have remembered music in the dark,...
Oh beauty that is filled so full of tears, Where every passing anguish left its trace, I pray you grant to me this depth of grace: That I may see before it disappears,...
Your beauty lives in mystic melodies, And all the light about you breathes a song. Your voice awakes the dreaming airs that throng Within our music-haunted memories....
Were you a Greek when all the world was young, Before the weary years that pass and pass, Had scattered all the temples on the grass, Before the moss to marble columns clung?...
Was Time not harsh to you, or was he kind, O pale Erinna of the perfect lyre, That he has left no word of singing fire Whereby you waked the dreaming Lesbian wind, And kindled night along the lyric shore?...
Lo, I am happy, for my eyes have seen Joy glowing here before me, face to face; His wings were arched above me for a space, I kissed his lips, no bitter came between....
When first I saw you, felt you take my hand, I could not speak for happiness to find How more than all they said your heart was kind, How strong you were, and quick to understand,...
Rose, when I remember you, Little lady, scarcely two, I am suddenly aware Of the angels in the air. All your softly gracious ways Make an island in my days Where my thoughts fly back to be...