Page:The poems of Richard Watson Gilder, Gilder, 1908.djvu/59

Rh So the torn strands the maiden's finger turns

Opposing ways, when they again do meet

Clasp each in each, as flame clasps into heat;

So when this hand on this cool bosom burns,

Each sense is lost in the other. So two urns

Do, side by side, the selfsame lines repeat,

But various color gives a lovelier grace,

And each by contrast still more fine has grown.

Thus, Love, it was, I did forget thy face

As more and more to me thy soul was known;

Vague in my mind it grew till, in its place,

Another came I knew not from my own.

IV—SONG

V—ALL IN ONE

when a maiden maidenly went by,

Or when I found some wonder in the grass,

Or when a purple sunset slow did pass,

Or a great star rushed silent through the sky;

Once when I heard a singing ecstasy,

Or saw the moon's face in the river's glass—

Then I remembered that for me, alas!

This beauty must for ever and ever die.

But now I may thus sorrow never more;

From fleeting beauty thou hast torn the pall;

Of beauty, Love, thou art the soul and core;