Sonnet IX

Alan Seeger

Amid the florid multitude her face

Was like the full moon seen behind the lace

Of orchard boughs where clouded blossoms part

When Spring shines in the world and in the heart.

As the full-moon-beams to the ferny floor

Of summer woods through flower and foliage pour,

So to my being’s innermost recess

Flooded the light of so much loveliness;

She held as in a vase of priceless ware

The wine that over arid ways and bare

My youth was the pathetic thirsting for,

And where she moved the veil of Nature grew

Diaphanous and that radiance mantled through

Which, when I see, I tremble and adore.