| William Wilfred Campbell, comp. The Oxford Book of Canadian Verse. 1913. | | | | Came Those Who Saw and Loved Her | | By Alan Sullivan (1868–1947) |
| | | CAME those who saw and loved her, | |
| She was so fair to see! | |
| No whit their homage moved her, | |
| So proud she was, so free; | |
| But, ah, her soul was turning | 5 |
| With strange and mystic yearning, | |
| With some divine discerning, | |
| Beyond them all—to me. | |
| |
| As light to lids that quiver | |
| Throughout a night forlorn, | 10 |
| She came—a royal giver— | |
| My temple to adorn; | |
| And my soul rose to meet her, | |
| To welcome her, to greet her, | |
| To name, proclaim, her sweeter | 15 |
| And dearer than the morn. | |
| |
| For her most rare devising | |
| Was mixed no common clay, | |
| Nor earthly form, disguising | |
| Its frailty for a day: | 20 |
| But sun and shadow blended | |
| And fire and love descended | |
| In one creation splendid | |
| Nor less superb than they. * * * * * | |
| You, of the finer moulding— | 25 |
| You, of the clearer light— | |
| Whose spirit-life, unfolding, | |
| Illumined my spirit’s night, | |
| Stoop not to end my dreaming, | |
| To stain the vision gleaming, | 30 |
| Or mar that glory, seeming | |
| Too high for touch or sight. | | | | |
|
|
