To Constantia: Stanzas 1 and 2

Cease, cease — for such wild lessons madmen learn

Thus to be lost, and thus to sink and die

Perchance were death indeed! — Constantia turn

In thy dark eyes a power like light doth lie

Even though the sounds its voice that were

Between lips are laid to sleep:

Within thy breath, and on thy hair

Like odour, it is yet

And from thy touch like fire doth leap —

Even while I write, my burning cheeks are wet —

Alas, that the torn heart can bleed but not forget.

breathless awe like the swift change

Of dreams unseen but felt in youthful slumbers

Wild sweet yet incommunicably strange

Thou breathest now in fast ascending numbers...