Mathilde Blind (1841–1896)

I WAS again beside my Love in dream:

Earth was so beautiful, the moon was shining;

The muffled voice of many a cataract stream

Came like a love-song, as, with arms entwining,

Our hearts were mixed in unison supreme.

The wind lay spell-bound in each pillared pine,

The tasselled larches had no sound or motion,

As my whole life was sinking into thine—

Sinking into a deep, unfathomed ocean

Of infinite love—uncircumscribed, divine.

Night held her breath, it seemed, with all her stars:

Eternal eyes that watched in mute compassion

Our little lives o’erleap their mortal bars,

Fused in the fulness of immortal passion,

A passion as immortal as the stars.

There was no longer any thee or me;

No sense of self, no wish or incompleteness;

The moment, rounded to Eternity,

Annihilated time’s destructive fleetness:

For all but love itself had ceased to be.