Page:Songs before sunrise (IA beforesunrisongs00swinrich).pdf/204

 There the utter sky is holier, there More pure the intense white height of air, More clear men’s eyes that mine would meet, And the sweet springs of things more sweet. There for this one warm note of doves A clamour of a thousand loves Storms the night’s ear, the day’s assails, From the tempestuous nightingales, And fills, and fails.

O gracious city well-beloved, Italian, and a maiden crowned, Siena, my feet are no more moved Toward thy strange-shapen mountain-bound: But my heart in me turns and moves, O lady loveliest of my loves, Toward thee, to lie before thy feet And gaze from thy fair fountain-seat Up the sheer street;

And the house midway hanging see That saw Saint Catherine bodily, Felt on its floors her sweet feet move, And the live light of fiery love Burn from her beautiful strange face, As in the sanguine sacred place