I. A HAUNTING face! with strange, ethereal eyes, Deep as unfathomed gulfs of tranquil skies When o'er their brightness a vague mist is drawn, Breathed from the half-veiled lips of melting dawn; A mouth whose passionate love and sweetness seem But just released from kisses in a dream; A brow like Psyche's, pensive, broad, and low And white as winter's whitest wreath of snow; While round that gracious forehead, calmly fair, Ripples an April rain of golden hair. II. For some rapt moments, on the ocean strand, Unconscious, beautiful, I saw her stand, As tremulous wave on wave, with freightage sweet Of murmured music, fawned about her feet, Then died in one divine, harmonious sigh; The breeze bewitched, could only falter nigh, And in shy delicate wafts of homage play With her rare tresses; like incarnate May, She seemed the earth, the tides, the heaven, to bless: For once I gazed on Beauty's perfectness. III. I gazed for some rapt moments, but no more; Then lowered mine eyes and slowly left the shore Made marvellous by that vision of delight; Yet evermore its beauty, day and night, Standing between the blue sky and the sea, Shines like a star of immortality Through all my being; it becomes a part Of the deep life that quickens soul and heart To sense of things ideal and supreme -- A palpable bliss, yet wedded to a dream. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE VALSE by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR ODE ON THE PLEASURE ARISING FROM VICISSITUDE by THOMAS GRAY THE BALLAD OF THE OYSTERMAN by OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES SONNETS ON PICTURES: MARY MAGDALEN AT THE DOOR OF SIMON THE PHARISEE by DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI ARCADIA: THE BARGAIN by PHILIP SIDNEY |