Walter Murdoch (1874–1970). The Oxford Book of Australasian Verse. 1918.

115. The Vision of Love

THE TWILIGHT fleeted away in pearl on the stream,

And night, like a diamond done, stood still in our dream.

Your eyes like burnished stones or as stars were bright

With the sudden vision that made us one with the night.

We loved in infinite spaces, forgetting here

The breasts that were lit with life and the lips so near;

Till the wizard willows waved in the wind and drew

Me away from the fulness of love and down to you.

Our love was so vast that it filled the heavens up:

But the soft white form I held was an empty cup,

When the willows called me back to earth with their sigh,

And we moved as shades through the deep that was you and I.