THE BLINDED SOLDIER TO HIS LOVE

                                                                              Alfred Noyes

I did not know you then.

I cannot see you now;

But let my hands again

Feel your sweet hair and brow.

Your eyes are grey, I am told,

Your hair a tawny gold.

          Yet, if of these I tire,

          I shall not need to stray.

          Your eyes shall feed my fire

          With brown or blue for grey;

          And your deep hair shall be

          As mutable as the sea.

                    Let forms and colours flow

                    Like clouds around a star.

                    I clasp the soul and know

                    How vain those day-dreams are;

                    Dreams from these eyes withdrawn

                    Beyond all thought of dawn.

                                         But what is dawn to me?

                                         In Love’s Arabian night,

                                         What lover cares to see

                                         The unwelcome morning light?

                                         With you, 0 sweetest friend,

                                         My night shall never end.