Ballads and Lyrics of Old France (46)

    THE perfect piteous beauty of thy face, Is like a star the dawning drives away； Mine eyes may never see in the bright day Thy pallid halo, thy supernal grace： But in the night from forth the silent place Thou comest, dim in dreams, as doth a stray Star of the starry flock that in the grey Is seen, and lost, and seen a moment's space.

    And as the earth at night turns to a star, Loved long ago, and dearer than the sun, So in the spiritual place afar, At night our souls are mingled and made one, And wait till one night fall, and one dawn rise, That brings no noon too splendid for your eyes.