University of Virginia Library


73

OTHERS LOVE MORTAL WOMEN, I A SPIRIT

Others love mortal women—as for me,
Weary I am of mortals, though their eyes
Be bluer than the deep Italian skies,
Or lovelier than the grey-toned English sea,
Or blacker than that night wherein there lies
The endless sweet unspoken witchery.
Weary I am; my longing upward flies,
And, in my wandering, I encounter—thee!
Others woo mortal women—I a ghost
Soft, playful, peerless, tender, snowdrop-white;
Sweeter she is than all the rose-lipped host
Of living queens of amorous delight:
Once having touched this high angelic flower,
Earth's most alluring loves have little power.