I SEE thee, gliding towards me with slow pace <br />Across the azure fields of Paradise, <br />Where thine each footstep makes a star arise. <br />So from this heart's once void but infinite space <br />Each strange sweet touch of thy celestial grace <br />In the old mortal life, struck out some spark <br />To light the world, though all my heaven lay dark. <br />O Beatrice, cypresses enlace <br />My laurels: none have grown save tear-bedewed-- <br />Salt tears that sank into the earth unviewed, <br />And sprang up green to form a crown of bays. <br />Take it! At thy dear feet I lay my all, <br />What men my honors, virtues, glories, call: <br />I lived, loved, suffered, sung--for thy sole praise.<br /><br />Dinah Maria Mulock Craik<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dante-to-beatrice/
