University of Virginia Library

SONNET XXXVI. BODY AND SOUL.

All know the beauty of my lady's face,
The peace and passion of her deep gray eyes,
Her hair wherein gold warmth of sunlight lies,
Her mouth that makes as mockery all praise,
Her languorous low voice that hath such ways
Of unimagined music that the soul
Stands poised and trembling; breathless till the whole
Ends in an unhoped symphony of sighs:
But who as I my lady's soul shall know,
The deep tides of her nature that bear on
Till all the line of common life seems gone,
To hearts that weary of their boundaries grow,—
Then must I turn, O love, from thee to go
Through ways, to places, of thy soul unknown?