| WHO gave thee, O Beauty, | |
| The keys of this breast,— | |
| Too credulous lover | |
| Of blest and unblest? | |
| Say, when in lapsed ages | 5 |
| Thee knew I of old? | |
| Or what was the service | |
| For which I was sold? | |
| When first my eyes saw thee, | |
| I found me thy thrall, | 10 |
| By magical drawings, | |
| Sweet tyrant of all! | |
| I drank at thy fountain | |
| False waters of thirst; | |
| Thou intimate stranger, | 15 |
| Thou latest and first! | |
| Thy dangerous glances | |
| Make women of men; | |
| New-born, we are melting | |
| Into nature again. | 20 |
| Lavish, lavish promiser, | |
| Nigh persuading gods to err! | |
| Guest of million painted forms, | |
| Which in turn thy glory warms! | |
| The frailest leaf, the mossy bark, | 25 |
| The acorn’s cup, the raindrop’s arc, | |
| The swinging spider’s silver line, | |
| The ruby of the drop of wine, | |
| The shining pebble of the pond, | |
| Thou inscribest with a bond, | 30 |
| In thy momentary play, | |
| Would bankrupt nature to repay. | |
| |
| Ah, what avails it | |
| To hide or to shun | |
| Whom the Infinite One | 35 |
| Hath granted His throne? | |
| The heaven high over | |
| Is the deep’s lover; | |
| The sun and sea, | |
| Informed by thee, | 40 |
| Before me run, | |
| And draw me on, | |
| Yet fly me still, | |
| As Fate refuses | |
| To me the heart Fate for me chooses. | 45 |
| Is it that my opulent soul | |
| Was mingled from the generous whole; | |
| Sea-valleys and the deep of skies | |
| Furnished several supplies; | |
| And the sands whereof I’m made | 50 |
| Draw me to them, self-betrayed? | |
| I turn the proud portfolios | |
| Which hold the grand designs | |
| Of Salvator, of Guercino, | |
| And Piranesi’s lines. | 55 |
| I hear the lofty paeans | |
| Of the masters of the shell, | |
| Who heard the starry music | |
| And recount the numbers well; | |
| Olympian bards who sung | 60 |
| Divine Ideas below, | |
| Which always find us young, | |
| And always keep us so. | |
| Oft, in streets or humblest places, | |
| I detect far-wandered graces, | 65 |
| Which, from Eden wide astray, | |
| In lonely homes have lost their way. | |
| |
| Thee gliding through the sea of form, | |
| Like the lightning through the storm, | |
| Somewhat not to be possessed, | 70 |
| Somewhat not to be caressed. | |
| No feet so fleet could ever find, | |
| No perfect form could ever bind. | |
| Thou eternal fugitive, | |
| Hovering over all that live, | 75 |
| Quick and skilful to inspire | |
| Sweet, extravagant desire, | |
| Starry space and lily-bell | |
| Filling with thy roseate smell, | |
| Wilt not give the lips to taste | 80 |
| Of the nectar which thou hast. | |
| |
| All that’s good and great with thee | |
| Works in close conspiracy; | |
| Thou hast bribed the dark and lonely | |
| To report thy features only, | 85 |
| And the cold and purple morning | |
| Itself with thoughts of thee adorning; | |
| The leafy dell, the city mart, | |
| Equal trophies of thine art; | |
| E’en the flowing azure air | 90 |
| Thou hast touched for my despair; | |
| And, if I languish into dreams, | |
| Again I meet the ardent beams. | |
| Queen of things! I dare not die | |
| In Being’s deeps past ear and eye; | 95 |
| Lest there I find the same deceiver, | |
| And be the sport of Fate for ever. | |
| Dread Power, but dear! if God thou be, | |
| Unmake me quite, or give thyself to me! | |
