As sometimes with a sable cloud We see the heavens bow'd, And dark'ning all the air Until the lab'ring fires they do contain Break forth again, Ev'n so from under your black hair I saw such an unusual blaze Light'ning and sparkling from your eyes, And with unused prodigies Forcing such [terrors and] amaze, That I did judge your empire here Was not of love alone, but fear. But as all that is violent Doth by degrees relent, So when that sweetest face, Growing at last to be serene and clear, Did now appear With all its wonted heav'nly grace, And your appeased eyes did send A beam from them so soft and mild That former terrors were exiled, And all that could amaze did end; Darkness in me was chang'd to light, Wonder to love, love to delight. Nor here yet did your goodness cease My heart and eyes to bless, For being past all hope That I could now enjoy a better state, An orient gate (As if the heav'ns themselves did ope) First form'd in thee, and then disclos'd So gracious and sweet a smile, That my soul, ravished the while, And wholly from itself unloos'd, Seem'd hov'ring in your breath to rise, To feel an air of Paradise. Nor here yet did your favours end, For whilst I down did bend, As one who now did miss A soul, which, grown much happier than before, Would turn no more, You did bestow on me a kiss, And in that kiss a soul infuse, Which was so fashion'd by your mind, And which was so much more refin'd Than that I formerly did use, That if one soul found joys in thee, The other fram'd them new in me. But as those bodies which dispense Their beams, in parting hence Those beams do re-collect, Until they in themselves resumed have The forms they gave, So when your gracious aspect From me was turned once away, Neither could I thy soul retain, Nor you gave mine leave to remain, To make with you a longer stay, Or suffer'd aught else to appear But your hair, night's hemisphere. Only as we in loadstones find Virtue of such a kind That what they once do give, B'ing neither to be chang'd by any clime Or forc'd by time, Doth ever in its subjects live, So though I be from you retir'd, The power you gave yet still abides, And my soul ever so guides, By your magnetic touch inspir'd, That all it moves or is inclin'd Comes from the motions of your mind | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET WRITTEN IN THE FALL OF 1914: 4 by GEORGE EDWARD WOODBERRY PSALM 45 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE THE BLAZED TRAIL by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN A BALLAD IN THE MANNER OF R-DY-RD K-PL-NG by GUY WETMORE CARRYL ANTHEM OF DAWN by MADISON JULIUS CAWEIN |