To O-, Of Her Dark Eyes

Across what calm of tropic seas,                 Neath alien clusters of the nights,          Looked, in the past, such eyes as these?                 Long-quenched, relumed, ancestral lights!          The generations fostered them;                 And steadfast Nature, secretwise-          Thou seedling child of that old stem-                 Kindled anew thy dark-bright eyes.          Was it a century or two                 This lovely darkness rose and set,          Occluded by grey eyes and blue,                 And Nature feigning to forget?          Some grandam gave a hint of it-                 So cherished was it in thy race,          So fine a treasure to transmit                 In its perfection to thy face.          Some father to some mothers breast                 Entrusted it, unknowing.    Time          Implied, or made it manifest,                 Bequest of a forgotten clime.          Hereditary eyes!    But this                 Is single, singular, apart:-          New-made thy love, new-made thy kiss,                 New-made thy errand to my heart.