I looked, she drooped, and neither spake, and cold, <br />We stood, how unlike all forecasted thought <br />Of that desir-ed minute! Then I leaned <br />Doubting; whereat she lifted--oh, brave eyes <br />Unfrighted:--forward like a wind-blown flame <br />Came bosom and mouth to mine! <br />That falling kiss <br />Touching long-laid expectance, all went up <br />Suddenly into passion; yea, the night <br />Caught, blazed, and wrapt us round in vibrant fire. <br /> <br /> <br />Time's beating wing subsided, and the winds <br />Caught up their breathing, and the world's great pulse <br />Stayed in mid-throb, and the wild train of life <br />Reeled by, and left us stranded on a hush. <br />This moment is a statue unto Love <br />Carved from a fair white silence. <br />Lo, he stands <br />Within us--are we not one now, one, one roof, <br />His roof, and the partition of weak flesh <br />Gone down before him, and no more, for ever?-- <br />Stands like a bird new-lit, and as he lit, <br />Poised in our quiet being; only, only <br />Within our shaken hearts the air of passion, <br />Cleft by his sudden coming, eddies still <br />And whirs round his enchanted movelessness. <br /> <br /> <br />A film of trance between two stirrings! Lo, <br />It bursts; yet dream's snapped links cling round the limbs <br />Of waking: like a running evening stream <br />Which no man hears, or sees, or knows to run, <br />(Glazed with dim quiet), save that there the moon <br />Is shattered to a creamy flicker of flame, <br />Our eyes' sweet trouble were hid, save that the love <br />Trembles a little on their impassioned calms.<br /><br />Francis Thompson<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/love-declared/
