AN IMAGE FROM A PAST LIFE
 
 He. Never until this night have I been stirred.
 The elaborate starlight throws a reflection
 On the dark stream,
 Till all the eddies gleam;
 And thereupon there comes that scream
 From terrified, invisible beast or bird:
 Image of poignant recollection.
 She. An image of my heart that is smitten through
 Out of all likelihood, or reason,
 And when at last,
 Youth's bitterness being past,
 I had thought that all my days were cast
 Amid most lovely places; smitten as though
 It had not learned its lesson.
 He. Why have you laid your hands upon my eyes?
 What can have suddenly alarmed you
 Whereon 'twere best
 My eyes should never rest?
 What is there but the slowly fading west,
 The river imaging the flashing skies,
 All that to this moment charmed you?
 She. A Sweetheart from another life floats there
 As though she had been forced to linger
 From vague distress
 Or arrogant loveliness,
 Merely to loosen out a tress
 Among the starry eddies of her hair
 Upon the paleness of a finger.
 He. But why should you grow suddenly afraid
 And start – I at your shoulder –
 Imagining
 That any night could bring
 An image up, or anything
 Even to eyes that beauty had driven mad,
 But images to make me fonder?
 She. Now She has thrown her arms above her head;
 Whether she threw them up to flout me,
 Or but to find,
 Now that no fingers bind,
 That her hair streams upon the wind,
 I do not know, that know I am afraid
 Of the hovering thing night brought me.