Richard Watson Gilder (Ричард Уотсон Гилдер)

The New Day. Part 4. 3. Likeness in Unlikeness

We are alike, and yet, O strange and sweet!
Each in the other difference discerns;
⁠      So the torn strands the maiden's finger turns
⁠      Opposing ways, when they again do meet
Clasp each in each, as flame clasps into heat;
      ⁠So when this hand on this cool bosom burns,
      ⁠Each sense is lost in the other. So two urns
      ⁠Do, side by side, the selfsame lines repeat,
But various color gives a lovelier grace,
      ⁠And each by contrast still more fine has grown.
⁠      Thus, Love, it was, I did forget thy face
As more and more to me thy soul was known;
⁠      Vague in my mind it grew till, in its place,
⁠      Another came I knew not from my own. 

Richard Watson Gilder’s other poems:

  1. The New Day. Part 3. 30. The Sower
  2. The New Day. Part 4. 11. “O Mighty River, Triumphing to the Sea”
  3. The New Day. Part 4. 12. “My Songs Are All of Thee, What Tho’ I Sing”
  4. The New Day. Part 3. 4. “What Would I Win Thee To?”
  5. The New Day. Part 3. 15. Listening to Music




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