Robert Bridges (1844–1930)

SENSE with keenest edge unusèd,

Yet unsteel’d by scathing fire;

Lovely feet as yet unbruisèd

On the ways of dark desire;

Sweetest hope that lookest smiling

O’er the wilderness defiling!

Why such beauty, to be blighted

By the swarm of foul destruction?

Why such innocence delighted,

When sin stalks to thy seduction?

All the litanies e’er chaunted

Shall not keep thy faith undaunted.

I have pray’d the sainted Morning

To unclasp her hands to hold thee;

From resignful Eve’s adorning

Stol’n a robe of peace to enfold thee;

With all charms of man’s contriving

Arm’d thee for thy lonely striving.

Me too once unthinking Nature,

—Whence Love’s timeless mockery took me,—

Fashion’d so divine a creature,

Yea, and like a beast forsook me.

I forgave, but tell the measure

Of her crime in thee, my treasure.