An Image from a Past Life + 

He + 

Never until this night have I been stirred. + 

The elaborate star-light has thrown reflections + 

On the dark stream, + 

Till all the eddies gleam; + 

And thereupon there comes that scream + 

From terrified, invisible beast or bird: + 

Image of poignant recollection. + 

She + 

An image of my heart that is smitten through + 

Out of all likelihood, or reason. + 

And when at last, + 

Youth’s bitterness being past, + 

I had thought that all my days were cast + 

Amid most lovely places; smitten as though + 

It had not learned its lesson. + 

He + 

Why have you laid your hands upon my eyes? + 

What can have suddenly alarmed you + 

Whereon ’twere best + 

My eyes should never rest? + 

What is there but the slowly fading west, + 

The river imaging the flashing skies, + 

All that to this moment charmed you? + 

She + 

A sweetheart from another life floats there + 

As though she had been forced to linger + 

From vague distress + 

Or arrogant loveliness, + 

Merely to loosen out a tress + 

Among the starry eddies of her hair + 

Upon the paleness of a finger. + 

He + 

But why should you grow suddenly afraid + 

And start⁠—I at your shoulder⁠— + 

Imagining + 

That any night could bring + 

An image up, or anything + 

Even to eyes that beauty had driven mad, + 

But images to make me fonder. + 

She + 

Now she has thrown her arms above her head; + 

Whether she threw them up to flout me, + 

Or but to find, + 

Now that no fingers bind, + 

That her hair streams upon the wind, + 

I do not know, that know I am afraid + 

Of the hovering thing night brought me. + 