I SHALL MAKE BEAUTY
Reading edition
I shall make beauty out of many things: Lights, colours, motions, sky and earth and sea, The soft unbosoming of all the springs Which that inscrutable hand allows to me, Odours of flowers, sounds of smitten strings, The voice of many a wind in many a tree, Fields, rivers, moors, swift feet and floating wings, Rocks, caves, and hills that stand and clouds that flee.
Men also and women, beautiful and dear, Shall come and pass and leave a fragrant breath; And my own heart, laughter and pain and fear, The majesties of evil and of death; But never, never shall my verses trace The loveliness of your most lovely face.