Oscar Williams. To One Unknown. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

To One Unknown

By Oscar Williams


From “Under the Sun” I PASS you by in the public street,
O beautiful one, O wind of gladness!
You are a call to me, a promise of mystery,
Of delirium and aching madness.

I pass you by in the public street—	5
You are a challenge, O entrancer!
I am a boy, afraid, and I pass you by,
Though my heart is breaking to answer!

I pass you by—but the memory of you
Is as a breath from some strange world crying,	10
As a scent of oranges in the nostrils of the sick,
As music in the ears of the dying.