Page:The Garden of Years.djvu/59



I loved you first, I know not how or where:—

The world began upon the day we met!

Truth’s self slept in your eyes; and in your hair

The sun lay trapped, as in a silken snare:

The tinkle of some crystal fountain’s jet

Sang in your voice; a hint of violet

Slept on your breath, and dawn’s divinest glow

Flushed your soft cheek—but ah, more tender yet

The ivory of your throat’s ascending snow!

I loved you first when first I found you fair.

Could you but guess how like the dawn you grew

Upon my east, slow as such dawnings will!

Spell-bound and breathless, diademed with dew.

My sunless world its sudden sovereign knew;

And all the fern-fringed forest waited, still.

Slow spread the glory on the distant hill,

From that faint early flush grown clear and strong,

And then, with one divinely daring thrill,

A single bird unleashed its soul in song,

And swung exultant upward in the blue!