Vita Nuova

I watched you in the distance tall and pale, Like a swift swallow in a pearly sky; Your eyelids drooped like petals wearily, Your face was like a lily of the vale. You had the softness of all Summer days, The silver radiance of the twilight hour, The mystery of bluebell-haunted ways, The passion of the white syringa’s flower.

I watched you, and I knew that I had found The long-delaying, long-expected Spring; I knew my heart had found a tune to sing; That strength to soar was in my spirit’s wing; That life was full of a triumphant sound, That death could only be a little thing.

Ω Κάλα, ὧ χαρίεσσα

I saw you by the Summer candlelight:-- You put to shame the sparkle of the gems, The lights, the flashing of the diadems, The moon and all the stars of Summer night. I saw you in the radiant morning hour:-- You put to shame the white rose and the red; Your chiselled lips, your little lovely head, Were fairer than the petals of a flower.

And on the shaven surface of the lawn, You moved like music, and you smiled like dawn,-- The leaves, the flowers, the dragon-flies, the dew, Beside you seemed the stuff of coarser clay; And all the glory of the Summer day A background for the wonder that was you.