("Tell me if this is all true...")

Ix

Amidst the rush and roar of life, O beauty, carved in stone,

you stand mute and still, alone and aloof.

Great Time sits enamoured at your feet and repeats to

you:

"Speak, speak to me, my love; speak, my mute bride!"

But your speech is shut up in stone, O you immovably

fair!

x

Tell me if this is all true, my lover?

tell me if it is true.

When the eyes of me flash their lightning on you,

dark clouds in your breast make stormy answer;

Is it then true

that the dew drops fall from the night when I am seen,

and the morning light is glad when it wraps my body?

Is it true, is it true, that your love

travelled alone through ages and worlds in search of

me?

that when you found me at last, your age-long desire

found utter peace in my gentle speech and my eyes

and lips and flowing hair?

Is it then true

that the mystery of the Infinite is written on this little

brow of mine?

Tell me, my lover, if all this is true!