| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
| |
| From “Phantasmion” |
| | | Sara Coleridge (1802–52) |
| | | | | One Face Alone |
| |
| |
| ONE face alone, one face alone, | |
| These eyes require; | |
| But, when that long’d-for sight is shown, | |
| What fatal fire | |
| Shoots through my veins a keen and liquid flame, | 5 |
| That melts each fibre of my wasting frame! | |
| |
| One voice alone, one voice alone, | |
| I pine to hear; | |
| But, when its meek mellifluous tone | |
| Usurps mine ear, | 10 |
| Those slavish chains about my soul are wound, | |
| Which ne’er, till death itself, can be unbound. | |
| |
| One gentle hand, one gentle hand, | |
| I fain would hold; | |
| But, when it seems at my command, | 15 |
| My own grows cold; | |
| Then low to earth I bend in sickly swoon, | |
| Like lilies drooping ’mid the blaze of noon. | |
| |
HE CAME UNLOOK’D FOR
HE came unlook’d for, undesir’d, | |
| A sunrise in the northern sky, | 20 |
| More than the brightest dawn admir’d, | |
| To shine and then forever fly. | |
| |
| His love, conferr’d without a claim, | |
| Perchance was like the fitful blaze, | |
| Which lives to light a steadier flame, | 25 |
| And, while that strengthens, fast decays. | |
| |
| Glad fawn along the forest springing, | |
| Gay birds that breeze-like stir the leaves, | |
| Why hither haste, no message bringing, | |
| To solace one that deeply grieves? | 30 |
| |
| Thou star that dost the skies adorn, | |
| So brightly heralding the day, | |
| Bring one more welcome than the morn, | |
| Or still in night’s dark prison stay. | |
| |
|
|
|
