O Beauty, Passing Beauty!
O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet!How can thou let me waste my youth in sighs?I only ask to sit beside thy feet.Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes.Might I but kiss thy hand! I dare not foldMy arms about thee--scarcely dare to speak.And nothing seems to me so wild and bold,As with one kiss to touch thy blessed cheek.Methinks if I should kiss thee, no controlWithin the thrilling brain could keep afloatThe subtle spirit. Even while I spoke,The bare word "kiss" hath made my inner soulTo tremble like a lute string, ere the noteHath melted in the silence that it broke.
Sign in to like, rate and collect poems, and keep track of what you've read.