Page:The Garden of Years.djvu/60



I loved you first because, when first you stood

Upon the threshold of my world new-born,

That strange new note I dimly understood

Leapt laughing from the bosom of the wood

Straight to the arms of my supremest morn!

Because your clear eyes, innocent of scorn,

Swept infinite horizons into view;

And the gray hazes, from their moorings torn,

Revealed wide fields that thenceforth, knowing you,

It was for me to till for gain and good.

Yet was I blind to all the better part

Of morning’s mute miraculous intent.

That spell you wove about me at the start,

Conjured to life by simple beauty’s art,

Told but a tithe of all the truth it meant:

And all the higher purpose that you lent

Unto my life, went wrapped within a veil.

Uneloquent, the message that was sent,

Wan with desire of speech, stood, proud and pale,

Outside the holiest holy of my heart.