Classic Poem

HER EYES DEFEAT HIS FACULTIES

What destiny of mine, what force, what ruse
Again persuades me weaponless to field
Where always in the shameful dust I yield?
Escape or perish — either way what use?
And yet, some use: for through my heart infuse
Such splendours from so sweet, so bright-revealed
A source, the fatal flame still flows that sealed
My doom which now the twentieth year renews.
The couriers of death I feel when those
Adorable eyes from dazzling distance come,
And if on me they move as she draws close,
With such delicious power Love leaves me numb,
I cannot speak of it, the memory flows
To nothingness; wit, words alike grow dumb!