had I not known how wonderf'lly your eyes
held mastery over the vesper sky,
had I not seen how splendidly your smile
forbade the evening moon's desolation,
or the fading raptures in the morning,
I would have been lost in the dreary sea.
No transient ship, no silken cloud, nothing
then could have stirred me in my loneliness.
I remember when I had no thought of
you and the shadows gathered 'round the day.
I remember too when I had first loved
you---and the shadows, they had gone away.
Disdainfully I imagine the time,
that twilight time we almost never met.