CELESTINE.
I.I must not look on you nor think of you,—Must seek close kinship with forgetfulness;Such looks as thine but make a strong man rueThat ever in his heart’s devout excessThe shadow of thy soul he did pursueThrough many a golden hour for one caress;’Twas but a noontide dream,A phantom fire, a gleamOf heaven wasted in a wilderness.II.I wake and wonder at the vision gone,Sweet music borne upon a winter blast,A beauty filched from sunset and the dawn,A marvel too ethereal to last;And now a heavy sadness falls uponMy spirit and the world, both overcastWith thunderstorm and gloom,In which there is no roomFor any ray of the enchanted past.III.I chide the fond delirium of my brow,And only pray that you forgive, forgetThe homage of a man who doth avowHis folly with a penitent’s regret;Such adoration even the gods allow,For thou art as a star divinely setIn heaven’s perfect blue,I can but sigh for youIn lonely ways with night dews chilled and wet.
I.I must not look on you nor think of you,—Must seek close kinship with forgetfulness;Such looks as thine but make a strong man rueThat ever in his heart’s devout excessThe shadow of thy soul he did pursueThrough many a golden hour for one caress;’Twas but a noontide dream,A phantom fire, a gleamOf heaven wasted in a wilderness.II.I wake and wonder at the vision gone,Sweet music borne upon a winter blast,A beauty filched from sunset and the dawn,A marvel too ethereal to last;And now a heavy sadness falls uponMy spirit and the world, both overcastWith thunderstorm and gloom,In which there is no roomFor any ray of the enchanted past.III.I chide the fond delirium of my brow,And only pray that you forgive, forgetThe homage of a man who doth avowHis folly with a penitent’s regret;Such adoration even the gods allow,For thou art as a star divinely setIn heaven’s perfect blue,I can but sigh for youIn lonely ways with night dews chilled and wet.
I.I must not look on you nor think of you,—Must seek close kinship with forgetfulness;Such looks as thine but make a strong man rueThat ever in his heart’s devout excessThe shadow of thy soul he did pursueThrough many a golden hour for one caress;’Twas but a noontide dream,A phantom fire, a gleamOf heaven wasted in a wilderness.
II.I wake and wonder at the vision gone,Sweet music borne upon a winter blast,A beauty filched from sunset and the dawn,A marvel too ethereal to last;And now a heavy sadness falls uponMy spirit and the world, both overcastWith thunderstorm and gloom,In which there is no roomFor any ray of the enchanted past.
III.I chide the fond delirium of my brow,And only pray that you forgive, forgetThe homage of a man who doth avowHis folly with a penitent’s regret;Such adoration even the gods allow,For thou art as a star divinely setIn heaven’s perfect blue,I can but sigh for youIn lonely ways with night dews chilled and wet.