University of Virginia Library


6

“EVER MINE”

SONNET

As flowers the sunlit air of heaven, as night
The rays that from the starland float through space,
So ever doth the poet seek the face
Of Beauty, his by the eternal right
Of endless and unspeakable delight
That makes his heart her shrine in every place;
His in her fragrance, in her girlish grace,
Her passionate charm, her marvel and her might.
The poet follows where pure Beauty leads
For she to him is as the force divine
That fills with life the flowers of all the meads.
O Beauty, summer's flower-sweet breath is thine!
I ask no frowning help of flowerless creeds
If thou art ever with me, ever mine.