Summers five since Time began

A shining angel-birth.

Will she suddenly spring away,

Beatrice! Blessing and blessed to be!

Beatrice! Still, as I gaze on thee,

Whose life was of yesterday:

[Pg 30]

With the lips of a dumb despair,

Yearn for the young sweet hours of life,

Far from sorrow and far from strife,

When the world seemed good and fair:

Of a sainted, ethereal maid,

Cheering the poet that broodeth apart,

Filling with gladness his desolate heart,

On a world of silence and shade.

And the visions vanish away

She is here at my side, a living child,

With the glowing cheek and the tresses wild,

Yet stainless and bright as they.

[Pg 31]

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