UPON HIS LEAVE-TAKING

That touching pallor which, like a soft cloud
Veiled her sweet smile, so delicate, so dear,
So shook my heart that from its stricken sphere
It sought to rise and meet that lovely shroud.
Then felt I how the blessed lovers crowd
About each other with eyes fixed and near:
For never was a mortal's gaze so clear,
So perfect and so tenderly endowed.
The gentlest glance ever a woman threw
Upon her love were cold and lustreless
Against this look that like celestial dew
She shed upon me with angelic stress
That seemed with mute solicitude to say,
" Who takes from me my faithful friend away? "