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1886–1950

MINIATURE

William Rose Benét

For all your gestures, for your gray-blue eyes And Irish mouth, and hair that makes you child, When shaken out at evening; for your mirth And your quick pity, and your mother's breast;

For the great tenderness that you have given And the rich dreams through purple-flowing night, The holy lull of effort and the peace Of a deep love; because of all these things,

Wherever I should be,— beyond what seas Of an enchanted music, on what isles, I know not, of a strange irradiance, In dream or life or death,— dissatisfied

With splendor or white mystery, my heart Would break — my heart would break — never to hear Your tones again or feel your hair again Beneath my lips, or see your lifted eyes

Brimming with all the secrets of the stars!

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MINIATURE · William Rose Benét · Poetry Cove