Classic Poem

For these, my friend, were but the foldings fair,
The furling leaves about the jewel-flower,
The shade that lent her beauty half its dower,—
The beauty that made rich the shadow there,
Touching all objects with transfiguring power:
The housedog at the door, the village school,
The village in the hills, the hills of Ule. . . .
And thou, Aurania, with thy brow of pearl,
So loved from all the world, didst overrule
All time, all thought, in thy sweet kingdom, girl!
Through the slow weeks my fancy found but her
And day by day at dusk and dawn-break cool:
All the long moonlight nights I dreamed of Ule
And in the dark half of the months my heart was there.