TO O—, OF HER DARK EYES
Reading edition
Across what calm of tropic seas, ’Neath alien clusters of the nights, Looked, in the past, such eyes as these? Long-quenched, relumed, ancestral lights!
The generations fostered them; And steadfast Nature, secretwise— Thou seedling child of that old stem— Kindled anew thy dark-bright eyes.
Was it a century or two This lovely darkness rose and set, Occluded by grey eyes and blue, And Nature feigning to forget?
Some grandam gave a hint of it— So cherished was it in thy race, So fine a treasure to transmit In its perfection to thy face.
Some father to some mother’s breast Entrusted it, unknowing. Time Implied, or made it manifest, Bequest of a forgotten clime.
Hereditary eyes! But this Is single, singular, apart:— New-made thy love, new-made thy kiss, New-made thy errand to my heart.