Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.
Love SightDante Gabriel Rossetti (18281882)
W
When in the light the spirits of mine eyes
Before thy face, their altar, solemnize
The worship of that love thro’ thee made known?
Or when, in the dusk hours (we two alone),
Close-kiss’d, and eloquent of still replies
Thy twilight hidden glimmering visage lies,
And my soul only sees thy soul its own?
Thyself, nor on the earth the shadow of thee,
Nor image of thine eyes in any spring,—
How then should sound upon Life’s darkening slope
The ground-whirl of the perish’d leaves of Hope,
The wind of Death’s imperishable wing?