SENSE with keenest edge unused, <br /> Yet unsteel'd by scathing fire; <br />Lovely feet as yet unbruised <br /> On the ways of dark desire; <br />Sweetest hope that lookest smiling <br />O'er the wilderness defiling! <br /> <br />Why such beauty, to be blighted <br /> By the swarm of foul destruction? <br />Why such innocence delighted, <br /> When sin stalks to thy seduction? <br />All the litanies e'er chaunted <br />Shall not keep thy faith undaunted. <br /> <br />I have pray'd the sainted Morning <br /> To unclasp her hands to hold thee; <br />From resignful Eve's adorning <br /> Stol'n a robe of peace to enfold thee; <br />With all charms of man's contriving <br />Arm'd thee for thy lonely striving. <br /> <br />Me too once unthinking Nature, <br /> --Whence Love's timeless mockery took me,-- <br />Fashion'd so divine a creature, <br /> Yea, and like a beast forsook me. <br />I forgave, but tell the measure <br />Of her crime in thee, my treasure.<br /><br />Robert Bridges<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/pater-filio-2/
