To Allen

By Marjorie Allen Seiffert

Beauty, the dream that I have dreamed so much

Comes true in your quick smile,

And on your cheek I see her touch

And sometimes in your eyes a while

Immortal beauty's fleeting image lies.

Dear child, in whose veins beat

The marching centuries of lovers’ feet,

All those brave, ardent ghosts in you arise —

The souls who, loving beauty, gave you birth,

With a chain of passion binding beauty to earth,

A captured dream — these souls breathe with your breath

Living again in beauty that knows no death.