XXXVII

Mujer mas pura que la luz serena,

Mas negra que la sombra del pecado.

How I do love your voice when thus you read

The poets of your soft and southern tongue

Whose vowels are like silver prayer-bells rung

Within the oratory of Love’s creed,

Where longing is the incense to up-speed,

And consonants are hushed like prayer among

Gray, gliding nuns, when vesper songs are sung

And they ask pardon for sins sweet indeed.

The last line! How your voice did tremble there,

Caressing lovingly each cadenced sound,

Tonal sonorousness, new, rich, soon found

To weave a magic on the waiting air!

I love you for that subtle sense of art

Where one with me forever is your heart.