Where does this tenderness come from?

It is not the first curls I have stroked slowly.

And lips I have known are darker than yours.

The stars rise off yours, then go out again.

 

Where does this tenderness come from?

So many eyes have risen and died

In front of these eyes of mine.

And yet, no such song

Have I heard in the darkness of night before.

 

Where does this tenderness come from?

Here.

In the ribs of the singer?

Where does this tenderness come from?

And what shall I do with it?

Young, sly singer just passing by.

Your lashes are longer than anyone's.

This is the whole of the poem that Ben quoted from trying to convince Meg to come back to Sunset Beach with him.
 

Two roads diverge in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveller, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

 

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that, the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

 

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

 

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -

I took the one less travelled by,

And that has made all the difference.

This is the poem Ben quoted from to Meg when they were on a Gondola ride down the canal in Venice, California.

She walks in beauty like the night

In cloudless climes and starry skies;

And all that's best of dark and light

Meet in her aspect and her eyes;

Thus mellowed to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

 

One shade the more, one ray the less,

Had half impared the nameless grace

Which waves in every raven tress,

Or softly lightens o'er her face;

Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, hoe dear their dwelling place.

 

And on that cheek, and o'er that brow,

So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,

The smiles that win, the tints that glow,

But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,

A heart whose love is innocent!

This is the poem Ben and Meg recited on their wedding day. Stanza one was quoted.
The second and the third ones weren't included in this episode.

I have loved hours at sea, gray cities,

The fragile secret of a flower,

Music, the making of a poem

That gave me heaven for an hour;

 

First stars above a snowy hill,

Voices of people kindly and wise,

And a great look of love, long hidden,

Found at least in meeting eyes.

 

I have loved much and been loved deeply,

Oh when my spirit`s fire burns low,

Leave me the darkness and the stillness,

I shall be tired and glad to go.