Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TO 0---, OF HER DARK EYES, by ALICE MEYNELL


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TO 0---, OF HER DARK EYES, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Across what calm of tropic seas
Last Line: New-made thy errand to my heart.
Alternate Author Name(s): Meynell, Wilfrid, Mrs.; Thompson, Alice Christina
Subject(s): Eyes


ACROSS what calm of tropic seas,
'Neath alien clusters of the nights,
Looked, in the past, such eyes as these!
Long-quenched, relumed, ancestral lights!

The generations fostered them;
And steadfast Nature, secretwise --
Thou seedling child of that old stem --
Kindled anew thy dark-bright eyes.

Was it a century or two
This lovely darkness rose and set,
Occluded by grey eyes and blue,
And Nature feigning to forget?

Some grandam gave a hint of it --
So cherished was it in thy race,
So fine a treasure to transmit
In its perfection to thy face.

Some father to some mother's breast
Entrusted it, unknowing. Time
Implied, or made it manifest,
Bequest of a forgotten clime.

Hereditary eyes! But this
Is single, singular, apart: --
New-made thy love, new-made thy kiss,
New-made thy errand to my heart.





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