ON COMO

A rainless darkness drew o'er the lake

As we lay in our boat with oars unshipped.

It seemed neither cloud nor water awake,

And forth of the low black curtain slipped

Thunderless lightning. Scoff no more

At angels imagined in downward flight

For the daughters of earth as fabled of yore:

Here was beauty might well invite

Dark heavens to gleam with the fire of a sun

Resurgent; here the exchanged embrace

Worthy of heaven and earth made one.

And witness it, ye of the privileged space,

Said the flash; and the mountains, as from an abyss

For quivering seconds leaped up to attest

That given, received, renewed was the kiss;

The lips to lips and the breast to breast;

All in a glory of ecstasy, swift

As an eagle at prey, and pure as the prayer

Of an infant bidden joined hands uplift

To be guarded through darkness by spirits of air,

Ere setting the sails of sleep till day.

Slowly the low cloud swung, and far

It panted along its mirrored way;

Above loose threads one sanctioning star,

The wonder of what had been witnessed, sealed,

And with me still as in crystal glassed

Are the depths alight, the heavens revealed,

Where on to the Alps the muteness passed.