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Collected poems by Vachel Lindsay

revised and illustrated edition

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BEYOND THE MOON

(Written to the Most Beautiful Woman in the World)

My Sweetheart is the TRUTH BEYOND THE MOON,
And never have I been in love with Woman,
Always aspiring to be set in tune
With one who is invisible, inhuman.
O laughing girl, cold TRUTH has stepped between,
Spoiling the fevers of your virgin face:

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Making your shining eyes but lead and clay,
Mocking your brilliant brain and lady's grace.
Truth haunted me the day I wooed and lost,
The day I wooed and won, or wooed in play:
Tho' you were Juliet or Rosalind,
Thus shall it be, forever and a day.
I doubt my vows, tho' sworn on my own blood,
Tho' I draw toward you weeping, soul to soul,
I have a lonely goal beyond the moon;
Ay, beyond Heaven and Hell, I have a goal!