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1837–1920

THE DOUBT.

William Dean Howells

She sits beside the low window, In the pleasant evening-time, With her face turned to the sunset, Reading a book of rhyme.

And the wine-light of the sunset, Stolen into the dainty nook, Where she sits in her sacred beauty, Lies crimson on the book.

O beautiful eyes so tender, Brown eyes so tender and dear, Did you leave your reading a moment Just now, as I passed near?

Maybe,‘ tis the sunset flushes Her features, so lily-pale; Maybe,‘ tis the lover's passion, She reads of in the tale.

O darling, and darling, and darling, If I dared to trust my thought; If I dared to believe what I must not, Believe what no one ought,—

We would read together the poem Of the Love that never died, The passionate, world-old story Come true, and glorified.

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THE DOUBT. · William Dean Howells · Poetry Cove