IN those old days you were called beautiful, But I have worn the beauty from your face; The flowerlike bloom has withered on your cheek With the harsh years, and the fire in your eyes Burns darker now and deeper, feeding on Beauty and the remembrance of things gone. Even your voice is altered when you speak, Or is grown mute with old anxiety For me. Even as a fire leaps into flame and burns Leaping and laughing in its lovely flight, And then under the flame a glowing dome Deepens slowly into blood-like light:— So did you flame and in flame take delight, So are you hollow'd now with aching fire. But I still warm me and make there my home, Still beauty and youth burn there invisibly For me. Now my lips falling on your silver'd skull, My fingers in the valleys of your cheeks, Or my hands in your thin strong hands fast caught, Your body clutched to mine, mine bent to yours: Now love undying feeds on love beautiful, Now, now I am but thought kissing your thought. —And can it be in your heart's music speaks A deeper rhythm hearing mine: can it be Indeed for me? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IMMORTALITY by EMILY DICKINSON STANZAS ON THE DEATH OF A CHILD by BERNARD BARTON THE ROAD TO SLUMBERLAND by MARY DOW BRINE A FORGIVENESS by ROBERT BROWNING HELEN'S TOWER by ROBERT BROWNING AIRS SUNG AT BROUGHAM CASTLE: THE KINGS GOOD NIGHT by THOMAS CAMPION |