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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONG OF THE ANGELS AT THE NATIVITY by NAHUM TATE A YOUTH TO HIS FATHER by WALTER R. ADAMS HITOPADESA: DEDICATION by EDWIN ARNOLD THE WORLD'S DESIRE by WILLIAM ROSE BENET A WINTER'S NIGHT IN IRONDEQUOIT by EMMA MAGIN BISSELL THE GEOGRAPHER'S GLORY; OR, THE GLOBE IN 1730 by EDMUND CHARLES BLUNDEN THE COMING OF LOVE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT INTRODUCTION TO A LADY'S ALBUM by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |