Alfred Tennyson

“ From tone to tone, and glided thro' all change
⁠Of liveliest utterance.
When she made pause I knew not for delight;
⁠Because with sudden motion from the ground
She raised her piercing orbs, and fill'd with light
⁠The interval of sound.
Still with their fires Love tipt his keenest darts;
⁠As once they drew into two burning rings
All beams of Love, melting the mighty hearts
⁠Of captains and of kings.
Slowly my sense undazzled.⁠Then I heard
⁠A noise of some one coming thro' the lawn,
And singing clearer than the crested bird
⁠That claps his wings at dawn. ”

“ Whirl'd by the wind, had roll'd me deep below,
⁠Then when I left my home."
Her slow full words sank thro' the silence drear,
⁠As thunder-drops fall on a sleeping sea:
Sudden I heard a voice that cried, "Come here,
⁠That I may look on thee."
I turning saw, throned on a flowery rise,
⁠One sitting on a crimson scarf unroll'd;
A queen, with swarthy cheeks and bold black eyes,
⁠Brow-bound with burning gold.
She, flashing forth a haughty smile, began:
⁠"I govern'd men by change, and so I sway'd
All moods.⁠'Tis long since I have seen a man. ”

“ And from within me a clear under-tone
⁠Thrill'd thro' mine ears in that unblissful clime,
"Pass freely thro': the wood is all thine own,
⁠Until the end of time."
At length I saw a lady within call,
⁠Stiller than chisell'd marble, standing there;
A daughter of the gods, divinely tall,
⁠And most divinely fair.
Her loveliness with shame and with surprise
⁠Froze my swift speech: she turning on my face
The star-like sorrows of immortal eyes,
⁠Spoke slowly in her place.
"I had great beauty: ask thou not my name:
⁠No one can be more wise than destiny. ”