I SAW thee in the streets, so wan and pale; My heart, it shivered at the saddening sight; Like a thin cloud thou wert, that though the sky doth sail, And threatens to dissolve, each moment, on its flight. But through that thinly textured cloud, the moon Can pour her splendour with a radiant sweep; While its strong brethren make her silver light to swoon, And quench her lustre in their dense and gloomy deep. Thus, through thy wan and weak and worn-out clay, The full-orbed soul floods her ethereal light; Purer than pure moonbeams shineth her wondrous ray; For, through the racking fire, she winged her upward flight. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN JANUARY by GORDON BOTTOMLEY INTROSPECTIVE by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI CONCERNING I AND NON-I by JOHN STUART BLACKIE THE ANCIENT THREE by HARRY RANDOLPH BLYTHE THE BLAZING HEART by ALICE WILLIAMS BROTHERTON THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: FATIMA by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON |