Yes, I think, were you beside them, Near the bed I die upon, Though their beauty you denied them, As you stood there looking down, You would truly Call them duly, For the love's sake found therein, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen." And if _you_ looked down upon them, And if _they_ looked up to _you_, All the light which has foregone them Would be gathered back anew; They would truly Be as duly Love-transformed to beauty's sheen, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen." But, ah me! you only see me, In your thoughts of loving man, Smiling soft, perhaps, and dreamy, Through the wavings of my fan; And unweeting Go repeating In your revery serene, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen." O my poet, O my prophet! When you praised their sweetness so, Did you think, in singing of it, That it might be near to go? Had you fancies From their glances, That the grave would quickly screen "Sweetest eyes were ever seen"? No reply. The fountain's warble In the courtyard sounds alone. As the water to the marble So my heart falls with a moan From love-sighing To this dying. Death forerunneth Love to win "Sweetest eyes were ever seen." _Will_ you come? When I'm departed Where all sweetnesses are hid, Where thy voice, my tender-hearted, Will not lift up either lid, Cry, O lover, Love is over! Cry, beneath the cypress green, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!" When the Angelus is ringing, Near the convent will you walk, And recall the choral singing Which brought angels down our talk? Spirit-shriven I viewed heaven, Till you smiled--"Is earth unclean, Sweetest eyes were ever seen?" When beneath the palace-lattice You ride slow as you have done, And you see a face there that is Not the old familiar one, Will you oftly Murmur softly, "Here ye watched me morn and e'en, Sweetest eyes were ever seen"? When the palace-ladies, sitting Round your gittern, shall have said, "Poets, sing those verses written For the lady who is dead," Will you tremble, Yet dissemble, Or sing hoarse, with tears between, "Sweetest eyes were ever seen"? "Sweetest eyes!" How sweet in flowings The repeated cadence is! Though you sang a hundred poems, Still the best one would be this. I can hear it 'Twixt my spirit And the earth-noise intervene,-- "Sweetest eyes were ever seen!"