How Beautiful Thou Art!

by Walter M. Lindsay

How beautiful thou art!
In the sad silence of an hour,
Wherein I knew my heart
Would never more on earth have power
To win confession of thy love,
Into my soul
Thy image sank; and though above
Its surface roll
The angry tides of human life,
Yet nature, in the endless strife,
Shall leave, untouched, the tender grace
Of thy remembered face.

How wild was that vain dream,
In which I thought thou wert mine own!
A moment, on the stream,
The shadow of my life was thrown,
And then it passed in sunlight on!
The buoyant tide,
Remembered not the bared tree,
That drooped beside
Its waters, wandering to the sea,
But swept, in fuller beauty, free,
By castle wall, and fertile plain,
Unto the boundless main.