| SENSE with keenest edge unusèd, | |
| Yet unsteel'd by scathing fire; | |
| Lovely feet as yet unbruisèd | |
| On the ways of dark desire; | |
| Sweetest hope that lookest smiling | 5 |
| O'er the wilderness defiling! | |
| |
| Why such beauty, to be blighted | |
| By the swarm of foul destruction? | |
| Why such innocence delighted, | |
| When sin stalks to thy seduction? | 10 |
| All the litanies e'er chaunted | |
| Shall not keep thy faith undaunted. | |
| |
| I have pray'd the sainted Morning | |
| To unclasp her hands to hold thee; | |
| From resignful Eve's adorning | 15 |
| Stol'n a robe of peace to enfold thee; | |
| With all charms of man's contriving | |
| Arm'd thee for thy lonely striving. | |
| |
| Me too once unthinking Nature, | |
| —Whence Love's timeless mockery took me,— | 20 |
| Fashion'd so divine a creature, | |
| Yea, and like a beast forsook me. | |
| I forgave, but tell the measure | |
| Of her crime in thee, my treasure. | |
