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...CONTRA MORTEM: THE SUN by HAYDEN CARRUTH REPULSE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON A HYMN TO GOD THE FATHER by JOHN DONNE DANNY DEEVER by RUDYARD KIPLING PROMETHEUS UNBOUND: THE RED SEA by AESCHYLUS EYE-SHAPED, MOUTH-SHAPED by MARGARET AHO TO A WILD DUCK by BERNICE GIBBS ANDERSON |