The Poetical Works of George Barlow In Ten [Eleven] Volumes |
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 | The Poetical Works of George Barlow |  |
178
TO A FACE
I
O virginal fair face, and eyes whose fire with sweetnessBlends in divine soft flame and mystical completeness,
I never knew
How sweet the world might be, till thee I saw within it
And felt all old mad dreams of love revive that minute
And the sky's old blue.
II
Forgive me that I am old. Forgive me, face so peerless,That, though I cannot meet thy gaze unmoved and tearless,
I was born afar
From this to-day's bright world wherethrough, divine, thou movest
And with thine eyes' strange light of inward force reprovest
God's every star.
179
III
Forgive me that the world is fair and bright before theeBut thunder-dark to me. Lo! let me just adore thee,
O face! O face!
Lo! half my life is lived,—or nearly all, it may be.
But thou—what shall the light of heaven within thy day be!
What, love's far embrace!
IV
I have to die. Forgive me.—All ye flowers, forgive me,Whose splendid summer bloom and glory shall outlive me:
White rose newly blown
Forgive me that I died while thou was just evading
The soft green sheath of leaves thy tender beauty shading,
Half coyly shown.
V
I have the love for all,—for flowers of stars precedingOur planet-star in space. I weep for blossoms bleeding
In far-off lands.
Yet I grow old while stars and blossoms beyond number
Wax and increase. I seek death's sempiternal slumber:
They seek Love's strong hands.
180
VI
Forgive me, all ye flowers whom I shall never furnishWith soft love-songs whose wings beneath far suns that burnish
Their bright plumes might fly,
Forgive me that I love, but yet am not immortal:
That ye wait at love's porch, while I wait at the portal
Where love must die.
May 20, 1883.
| The Poetical Works of George Barlow | |