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[Poems by Wilde in] Richard Henry Wilde

His Life and Selected Poems

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TO MISS ---
 
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TO MISS ---

Fair daughter of the West! whose cloudless skies
And gorgeous suns I may no more behold,
How have they tinged thy ringlets and thine eyes
Celestial azure hung with molten gold!
Likeness to things of more than mortal birth
We trace—not merely in thy charms alone—
An emanation thou from Heaven to Earth,
The wandering spirit of some starry zone.
So purely, sweetly, innocently bright,
Embodied Hope & Joy, and Peace & Love,
Seeming to others as the Day to Night
Or to this wretched world the realms above.
So wise, so good, so fair, so kind, so just,
Thou beam'st an Angel on this vale of tears
And I bow down before thee in the dust
Stained with the pilgrimage of long long years.
O! I am sick of Earth and all its harms
Its care, pain, woe, fear, hate, strife, guilt & shame,
Come! spread thy wings then, clasp me in thine arms
And bear me to the skies from whence ye came!
5 Jany 1838