| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | Epithalamium | | By Edmund Gosse (1849–1928) |
| | | HIGH in the organ-loft with lilied hair, | |
| Love plied the pedals with his snowy foot, | |
| Pouring forth music like the scent of fruit, | |
| And stirring all the incense-laden air; | |
| We knelt before the altar’s gold rail, where | 5 |
| The priest stood robed, with chalice and palm-shoot, | |
| With music-men who bore citole and lute | |
| Behind us, and the attendant virgins fair. | |
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| And so our red aurora flash’d to gold, | |
| Our dawn to sudden sun; and all the while | 10 |
| The high-voiced children trebled clear and cold, | |
| The censer-boys went swinging down the aisle, | |
| And far above, with fingers strong and sure, | |
| Love closed our lives’ triumphant overture. | | | | |
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