William Wetmore Story (1819–1895)

SWEET Clytie! maiden most serene and fair!

Thy marble life of silent loveliness

Time from its cold and withering touch shall spare,

And ageless youth, eternal beauty, bless.

Thy lowly drooping head, that seems to wear

The melancholy grace of pensiveness,

Thy mournful eyes, thy trembling lips, confess

The soul which love and grief together share.

O’er the full ripeness of maturity,

The past and future, pausing, seem to brood,—

Autumn and noon, in their high jubilee,

To serious stillness ever are subdued;

And so a pensive shadow rests on thee,

Fair, sweet, consummate flower of maidenhood!