Amenophis and Other Poems Sacred and Secular :: :: University of Virginia Library

Palgrave, Francis Turner (1824-1897)

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197

If I could put my love in words,
Would I pour out to Thee
A sweeter song than any yet
Was sung by bird on tree:—

Here, where the many-pointed Mount
That wears the cap on high,

Mons Pil[e]atus; So named from its frequent cloud-covering.

Pale against paler air, builds up
His snows beneath the sky;—

Or where, above an English sea,
Our green hills fringe the bay,
The long sweet hours of eve we sit,
Till golden fades to gray.

—But as who, at some shrine long-sought,
Would speak, but cannot dare,
So much the Presence overawes
The pilgrim and the prayer;

So am I mute:—Yet, to the soul
Can that dumb silence tell
In words beyond art's choicest art,
How well I love,—how well!

May, 1885

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