Page:Poems, Meynell, 1921.djvu/98

 TWO BOYHOODS

UMINOUS passions reign

High in the soul of man; and they are twain.

Of these he hath made the poetry of earth—

Hath made his nobler tears, his magic mirth.

Fair Love is one of these,

The visiting vision of seven centuries;

And one is love of Nature—love to tears—

The modern passion of this hundred years.

Oh never to such height,

Oh never to such spiritual light—

The light of lonely visions, and the gleam

Of secret splendid sombre suns in dream—

Oh never to such long

Glory in life, supremacy in song,

Had either of these loves attained in joy,

But for the ministration of a boy.

Dante was one who bare

Love in his deep heart, apprehended there

When he was yet a child; and from that day

The radiant love has never passed away.

90