When the auricles answer with rhythmical sob,

As they murmur a melody wondrously low!

Oh, thy cornea, love, has the radiant light

Of the sparkle that laughs in the icicle’s sheen;

And thy crystalline lens, like a diamond bright,

Through the quivering frame of thine iris is seen!

And thy retina, spreading its lustre of pearl,

Like the far-away nebula, distantly gleams

From a vault of black cellular mirrors that hurl

From their hexagon angles the silvery beams.