English Poetry III: From Tennyson to Whitman.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14. |
| |
| 716. Lovesight |
| | | Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882) |
| |
| |
| WHEN do I see thee most, beloved one? | |
| When in the light the spirits of mine eyes | |
| Before thy face, their altar, solemnize | |
| The worship of that Love through thee made known? | |
| Or when in the dusk hours, (we two alone,) | 5 |
| Close-kissed and eloquent of still replies | |
| Thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies, | |
| And my soul only sees thy soul its own? | |
| O love, my love! if I no more should see | |
| Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee, | 10 |
| Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,— | |
| How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slope | |
| The ground-whirl of the perished leaves of Hope, | |
| The wind of Death’s imperishable wing? | |
| |
|
|
|
