How shall I sing of Her that is My life's long rapture and despair -- Sorrow eternal, Loveliness, To whom each heart-beat is a prayer. Utterly, endlessly, alone Possessing me, yet unpossessed -- The dark, the drear Beloved One That takes the tribute of this breast. Daemon disconsolate, in vain, In vain petitioned and implored, How many a midnight of disdain Darkly and dreadfully adored. Beauty, the virgin, evermore Out of these arms with laughter fled -- Vanished . . . a voice by slope and shore Haunting the world, Illusion dread! Most secret Siren, on whose coast 'Mid spray of perishing song are hurled All desolate lovers, all the lost Soul and half-poets of the world! Through sleepless nights and lonely days In tears and terror served and sought -- Light beyond light, the supreme Face That blinds the adoring eyes of Thought! How long shall I sing of Her! Nay all, All song, all sorrow, all silence of This desperate heart, that is Her thrall, Trembles and tries to tell my love. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: JANE FISHER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS COMFORT by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING STRANGE HURT [SHE KNOWS] by JAMES LANGSTON HUGHES THE ENKINDLED SPRING by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE THE RABBIT by ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS AT THE CEDARS by DUNCAN CAMPBELL SCOTT THE CHILD ALONE: 7. THE LAND OF STORY-BOOKS by ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON |