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The Silence of Love

By Edmond Holmes

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7

I

[When first the light of thy belovèd eyes]

When first the light of thy belovèd eyes
Shone on my soul, its hidden fire awoke,—
A fire which smoulders low but never dies—
And brightly glowing from its embers broke:
First love, then hope, then yearnings strange and deep;
Then, as to each the silent message came,
New thoughts, new aims, new powers arose from sleep,
Till all the mystic circle was aflame.
So in the spring-time, when the south wind blows,
Warm with the sunshine of far tropic climes,

8

Kissing earth's slumb'rous eyelids as he goes,
Breathing of larger life and happier times,—
The drear dark land, a hundred leagues along,
Breaks into bud and leaf and light and song.