Page:The Poems and Prose remains of Arthur Hugh Clough, volume 2 (1869).djvu/48

 Art thou she that walks the skies, That rides the starry night? I know not For my meanness dares not claim the truth Thy loveliness declares. But the face thou show’st the world is not The face thou show’st to me; And the look that I have looked in Is of none but me beheld. I know not; but I know I am thine, and thou art mine.

And I watch: the orb behind As it fleeteth, faint and fair In the depth of azure night, In the violet blank, I trace By an outline faint and fair Her whom none but I beheld. By her orb she moveth slow, Graceful-slow, serenely firm, Maiden-Goddess! while her robe The adoring planets kiss. And I too cower and ask, Wert thou mine, and was I thine?

Hath a cloud o’ercast the sky? Is it cloud upon the mountain-sides Or haze of dewy river-banks Below?— Or around me, To enfold me, to conceal, Doth a mystic magic veil, A celestial separation, As of curtains hymeneal,