Retrospect (The South Seas)

In your arms was still delight,     Quiet as a street at night;     And thoughts of you, I do remember,     Were green leaves in a darkened chamber,     Were dark clouds in a moonless sky.     Love, in you, went passing by,     Penetrative, remote, and rare,     Like a bird in the wide air,     And, as the bird, it left no trace     In the heaven of your face.     In your stupidity I found     The sweet hush after a sweet sound.     All about you was the light     That dims the greying end of night;     Desire was the unrisen sun,     Joy the day not yet begun,     With tree whispering to tree,     Without wind, quietly.     Wisdom slept within your hair,     And Long-Suffering was there,     And, in the flowing of your dress,     Undiscerning Tenderness.     And when you thought, it seemed to me,     Infinitely, and like a sea,     About the slight world you had known     Your vast unconsciousness was thrown. . . .     O haven without wave or tide!     Silence, in which all songs have died!     Holy book, where hearts are still!     And home at length under the hill!     O mother quiet, breasts of peace,     Where love itself would faint and cease!     O infinite deep I never knew,     I would come back, come back to you,     Find you, as a pool unstirred,     Kneel down by you, and never a word,     Lay my head, and nothing said,     In your hands, ungarlanded;     And a long watch you would keep;     And I should sleep, and I should sleep!