Richard Watson Gilder

"I love her doubting and anguish; I love the love she withholds; I love my love that loveth her And anew her being moulds."

"The Smile of her I love is like the dawn Whose touch makes Memnon sing: O, see where wide the golden sunlight flows— The barren desert blossoms as the rose!"

"Not from the whole wide world I chose thee— Sweetheart, light of the land and the sea! The wide, wide world could not inclose thee, For thou art the whole wide world to me."

"Heaven from the hopeless doubter The true believer makes: Against the darkness outer The light God's likeness takes."

"Through love to light! Oh wonderful the way That leads from darkness to the perfect day!"

"From all the misty morning air, there comes a summer sound,— A murmur as of waters from skies, and trees and ground. The birds they sing upon the wing, the pigeons bill and coo."

"I am a woman—therefore I may not Call to him, cry to him, Fly to him, Bid him delay not."

"O white and midnight sky, O starry bath, Wash me in thy pure, heavenly crystal flood: Cleanse me, ye stars, from earthly soil and scath— Let not one taint remain in spirit or blood!"