Classic Poem

Where her two lips
Meet or part,
Leaps all my heart
Like the swift ship's
Lurch on the lucent wave—
Past peril and the grave!

Where her two eyes open or close
Upon the rose-kissed snows
Of her face,
From my soul doth rise
Of its grace
A white star in their skies!

But if she smile
Or weave of her mouth a word,
Swiftly a light steals
Half my mind, while
Her word falls all unheard!
And a blue mist reels
Half curtaining my mind,
As a blue dream reels
In the heart of the blind:
Circling a remembrance
Of meadows and streams,
Of blossoms that open and lights that dance,
And passions that struggle to live in dreams!