XVIII
Reading edition
TO me thou art an angel, borne to earth By some fair chance that fans the summer wind. Thus would thy magic power upon me bind The tendrils of my heart about thy birth. There is, indeed, in thy fair soul no dearth Of the divine incentive to be kind, I veritably do believe, but find Unutterable sorrow in thy worth. An angel I have told thee that thou wert; Yet thou denied the truth of my true saying, That thou possessed the beauty of the gods. Was it more true—ah, how my heart is hurt, To half believe that thou, like Satan playing, Couldst set at naught love’s holiest periods!