From “phantasmion” - One Face Alone

ONE face alone, one face alone, These eyes require; But, when that long’d-for sight is shown, What fatal fire Shoots through my veins a keen and liquid flame, That melts each fibre of my wasting frame! One voice alone, one voice alone, I pine to hear; But, when its meek mellifluous tone Usurps mine ear, Those slavish chains about my soul are wound, Which ne’er, till death itself, can be unbound. One gentle hand, one gentle hand, I fain would hold; But, when it seems at my command, My own grows cold; Then low to earth I bend in sickly swoon, Like lilies drooping ’mid the blaze of noon.