Page:Poems, Alan Seeger, 1916.djvu/108



spirit only lived to look on Beauty's face,

As only when they clasp the arms seem served aright;

As in their flesh inheres the impulse to embrace,

To gaze on Loveliness was my soul's appetite.

I have roamed far in search; white road and plunging bow

Were keys in the blue doors where my desire was set;

Obedient to their lure, my lips and laughing brow

The hill-showers and the spray of many seas have wet.

Hot are enamored hands, the fragrant zone unbound,

To leave no dear delight unfelt, unfondled o'er,

The will possessed my heart to girdle Earth around

With their insatiate need to wonder and adore.

The flowers in the fields, the surf upon the sands,

The sunset and the clouds it turned to blood and wine,

Were shreds of the thin veil behind whose beaded strands

A radiant visage rose, serene, august, divine.

A noise of summer wind astir in starlit trees,

A song where sensual love's delirium rose and fell,

Were rites that moved my soul more than the devotee's

When from the blazing choir rings out the altar bell.

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