Adam Roberts
Oct 12, 2022

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I didn't (to my shame), so I looked it up:

"Lady, we would behold thee moving bright

As Beatrice or Matilda 'mid the trees,

Alas! thy moan was as a moan for ease

And passage through cool shadows to the night:

Fleeing from love, hadst thou not poet's right

To slip into the universe? The seas

Are fathomless to rivers drowned in these,

And sorrow is secure in leafy light.

Ah, had this secret touched thee, in a tomb

Thou hadst not buried thy enchanting self,

As happy Syrinx murmuring with the wind,

Or Daphne thrilled through all her mystic bloom,

From safe recess as genius or as elf,

Thou hadst breathed joy in earth and in thy kind."

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Adam Roberts
Adam Roberts

Written by Adam Roberts

Writer and academic. London-adjacent.

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