Classic Poem

I LOVE thee that thou dost inspire
My ice-bound heart with quickening fire,
And makest me forget,
One silver moment, that I'm old,
When warms thy breath my lips, from cold
Indifference to regret.

As in gray autumn's dreary days
Their pallid cheeks the asters raise,
To catch the sun's stray kiss,
So, ere the Arctic night sets in,
Thy radiance shall my last thread spin
With rapture's golden bliss.

O thrilling touch, O glowing eyes,
Whose beams, like stars in wintry skies,
Shine harmless on the snow!
Harmless as when, in tempest dark,
The palmer from the steel's cold spark
A kindling flame would blow.

Yet—phantom dear of buried days
That veilest, with a sunset haze,
The future's gloom and sorrow—
Stay! that the thought of thee may bless,
With one bright ray of happiness,
The dark clouds of to-morrow!