Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: EROS, by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: EROS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: What wonder that I loved her thus, that night?
Last Line: Her mystic name.
Alternate Author Name(s): Meredith, Owen; Lytton, 1st Earl Of; Lytton, Robert
Subject(s): Italy; Love; Travel; Italians; Journeys; Trips


WHAT wonder that I loved her thus, that night?
The Immortals know each other at first sight,
And Love is of them.
In the fading light
Of that delicious eve, whose stars even yet
Gild the long dreamless nights, and cannot set,
She passed me, through the silence: all her hair,
Her waving, warm, bright hair neglectfully
Poured round her snowy throat as without care
Of its own beauty.
And when she turned on me
The sorrowing light of desolate eyes divine,
I knew in a moment what our lives must be
Henceforth. It lightened on me then and there,
How she was irretrievably all mine,
I hers, -- through time, become eternity.
It could not ever have been otherwise,
Gazing into those eyes.

And if, before I gazed on them, my soul,
Oblivious of her destiny, had followed,
In days forever silent, the control
Of any beauty less divinely hallowed
Than that upon her beautiful white brows,
(The serene summits of all earthly sweet, ness!)
Straightway the records of all other vows
Of idol-worship faded silently
Out of the folding leaves of memory,
Forever and forever; and my heart became
Pure white at once, to keep in its completeness,
And perfect purity,
Her mystic name.





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