| |
| SHE passes in her beauty bright | |
| Amongst the mean, amongst the gay, | |
| And all are brighter for the sight, | |
| And bless her as she goes her way. | |
| |
| And now a gleam of pity pours, | 5 |
| And now a spark of spirit flies, | |
| Uncounted, from the unlock’d stores | |
| Of her rich lips and precious eyes. | |
| |
| And all men look, and all men smile, | |
| But no man looks on her as I: | 10 |
| They mark her for a little while, | |
| But I will watch her till I die. | |
| |
| And if I wonder now and then | |
| Why this so strange a thing should be— | |
| That she be seen by wiser men | 15 |
| And only duly lov’d by me: | |
| |
| I only wait a little longer, | |
| And watch her radiance in the room; | |
| Here making light a little stronger, | |
| And there obliterating gloom, | 20 |
| |
| (Like one who, in a tangled way, | |
| Watches the broken sun fall through, | |
| Turning to gold the faded spray, | |
| And making diamonds of dew). | |
| |
| Until at last, as my heart burns, | 25 |
| She gathers all her scatter’d light, | |
| And undivided radiance turns | |
| Upon me like a sea of light. | |
| |
| And then I know they see in part | |
| That which God lets me worship whole: | 30 |
| He gives them glances of her heart, | |
| But me, the sunshine of her soul. | |
| |
