Poems By William Bell Scott. Ballads, Studies from Nature, Sonnets, etc. Illustrated by Seventeen Etchings by the Author and L. Alma Tadema |
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 | Poems |  |
73
I
BIRTH.
I stood before the vail of the Unknown,
And round me in this life's dim theatre
Was gathered a whole townsfolk, all astir
With various interludes: I watched alone,
And saw a great hand lift the vail, then shone,
Descending from the innermost expanse,
A goddess to whose eyes my heart at once
Flew up with awe and love, a love full-blown.
And round me in this life's dim theatre
Was gathered a whole townsfolk, all astir
With various interludes: I watched alone,
And saw a great hand lift the vail, then shone,
Descending from the innermost expanse,
A goddess to whose eyes my heart at once
Flew up with awe and love, a love full-blown.
Naked and white she was, her fire-girt hair
Eddied on either side her straight high head,
Swaddled within her arms in lambent flame,
An unborn life, a child-soul, did she bear,
And laid it on a young wife's breast and fled,
Yet no one wondered whence the strange gift came!
Eddied on either side her straight high head,
Swaddled within her arms in lambent flame,
An unborn life, a child-soul, did she bear,
And laid it on a young wife's breast and fled,
Yet no one wondered whence the strange gift came!
| Poems | |