| |
| 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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