Classic Poem

HE IS PROUD TO SHARE HER AFFLICTION

What strange adventure struck me when from one
Of the two loveliest eyes that ever glowed,
The while I saw it smitten by a cloud
Of pain, some rare compulsion seized my own?
I had come back, as curs might for a bone,
To break a dreary fast at her abode,
To see her once: ah, Heaven and Love bestowed
More grace than all their gifts in unison:
When from the right eye, from that well of flame
Of my dear Lady to my own there came
The sweet contagion, sweeter, being shared;
As though it had a mind and wings, it flared
Like a star flung in a dazzling interlude:
Nature and pity then their course pursued.