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IN your arms was still delight, | |
Quiet as a street at night; | |
And thoughts of you, I do remember, | |
Were green leaves in a darkened chamber, | |
Were dark clouds in a moonless sky. | 5 |
Love, in you, went passing by, | |
Penetrative, remote, and rare, | |
Like a bird in the wide air; | |
And, as the bird, it left no trace | |
In the heaven of your face. | 10 |
In your stupidity I found | |
The sweet hush after a sweet sound. | |
All about you was the light | |
That dims the graying end of night; | |
Desire was the unrisen sun, | 15 |
Joy the day not yet begun, | |
With tree whispering to tree, | |
Without wind, quietly. | |
Wisdom slept within your hair, | |
And Long-suffering was there, | 20 |
And, in the flowing of your dress, | |
Undiscerning Tenderness. | |
And when you thought, it seemed to me, | |
Infinitely, and like a sea, | |
About the slight world you had known | 25 |
Your vast unconsciousness was thrown
. | |
O haven without wave or tide! | |
Silence, in which all songs have died! | |
Holy book, where hearts are still! | |
And home at length under the hill! | 30 |
O mother quiet, breasts of peace, | |
Where love itself would faint and cease! | |
O infinite deep I never knew, | |
I would come back, come back to you, | |
Find you, as a pool unstirred, | 35 |
Kneel down by you, and never a word, | |
Lay my head, and nothing said, | |
In your hands, ungarlanded; | |
And a long watch you would keep; | |
And I should sleep, and I should sleep! | 40 |
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