With cliffs and clouds and eagles over me,

O how came I to stoop to loving thee—

I that had never stooped before to shame?

O ’twas not thee! Too eager of a white

Far beauty and a voice to answer mine,

Myself I built an image of delight,

Which all one purple day I deemed divine—

And when it vanished in the fiery night,

I lost not thee, nor any shape of thine.

TO THE VICTOR