Oscar Williams

From “Under the Sun”

I PASS you by in the public street,

O beautiful one, O wind of gladness!

You are a call to me, a promise of mystery,

Of delirium and aching madness.

I pass you by in the public street—

You are a challenge, O entrancer!

I am a boy, afraid, and I pass you by,

Though my heart is breaking to answer!

I pass you by—but the memory of you

Is as a breath from some strange world crying,

As a scent of oranges in the nostrils of the sick,

As music in the ears of the dying.