I enter, and I see thee in the gloom + 

Of the long aisles, O poet saturnine! + 

And strive to make my steps keep pace with thine. + 

The air is filled with some unknown perfume; + 

The congregation of the dead make room + 

For thee to pass; the votive tapers shine; + 

Like rooks that haunt Ravenna’s groves of pine + 

The hovering echoes fly from tomb to tomb. + 

From the confessionals I hear arise + 

Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies, + 

And lamentations from the crypts below; + 

And then a voice celestial that begins + 

With the pathetic words, “Although your sins + 

As scarlet be,” and ends with “as the snow.” + 

With snow-white veil and garments as of flame, + 

She stands before thee, who so long ago + 

Filled thy young heart with passion and the woe + 

From which thy song and all its splendors came; + 

And while with stern rebuke she speaks thy name, + 

The ice about thy heart melts as the snow + 

On mountain heights, and in swift overflow + 

Comes gushing from thy lips in sobs of shame. + 

Thou makest full confession; and a gleam, + 

As of the dawn on some dark forest cast, + 

Seems on thy lifted forehead to increase; + 

Lethe and Eunoë⁠—the remembered dream + 

And the forgotten sorrow⁠—bring at last + 

That perfect pardon which is perfect peace. + 