Your soul tumultuous as a spring-time flood

And life’s new wonder pulsing in your blood,

I could not understand.

I could not see your soul like thin red fire

Flash downward to my gaze,

Nor guess the strange, half-understood desire,

The tumult and the question and the ire

Of those far days.

I saw your soul stretch longing arms to love

In adolescent shyness bound,