Show thee as I thought thee

When I early sought thee,

   Omen-scouting,

   All undoubting

Love alone had wrought thee—

Wrought thee for my pleasure,

Planned thee as a measure

   For expounding

   And resounding

Glad things that men treasure.

O for but a moment

Of that old endowment—

   Light to gaily

   See thy daily

Irisèd embowment!

But such re-adorning

Time forbids with scorning—

   Makes me see things

   Cease to be things

They were in my morning.

Fad’st thou, glow-forsaken,

Darkness-overtaken!

   Thy first sweetness,

   Radiance, meetness,

None shall re-awaken.

Why not sempiternal

Thou and I?  Our vernal

   Brightness keeping,

   Time outleaping;

Passed the hodiernal!