Ii

O sweet my sometime loved and worshipt one A day thou gavest me That rose full-orbed in starlike happiness And lit our heaven that other stars had none:-- Sole as that westering sphere companionless When twilight is begun And the dead sun transfigureth the sea: A day so bright Methought the very shadow, from its light Thrown, were enough to bless (Albeit with but a shadow's benison) The unborn days its dark posterity. Methought our love, though dead, should be Fair as in life, by memory Embalmed, a rose with bloom for aye unblown. But lo the forest is with faded leaves And our two hearts with faded loves bestrown, And in mine ear the weak wind grieves And uttereth moan: "Shed leaves and fallen, fallen loves and shed, And those are dead and these are more than dead; And those have known The springtime, these the lovetime, overthrown, With all fair times and pleasureful that be." And shall not we, O Time, and shall not we Thy strong self see Brought low and vanquishèd, And made to bow the knee And bow the head To one that is when thou and thine are fled, The silent-eyed austere Eternity?