A London Moment
Often have I, in my desolate years,
Flogged a jaded heart in loud saloons;
Often have I fled myself with tears,
Wandering under pallid, passionate moons.
Often have I slunk through pleasured rites,
Lonely in the tumult of decay;
Often marked the hectic London nights
Flowing from the violet-lidded day.
Yet, because of you, the world has been
Kindlier. Oh, little heart-o’-rose,
I have glimpsed a beauty seldom seen
In this labyrinthine mist of woes.
Beauty smiles at me from common things,
All the way from Fleet Street to the Strand;
Even in the song the barmaid sings
I have found a fresh enchanted land.
Pass me by, you little vagrant joy.
Brush me from your delicate mimic world.
Nothing of you now can e’er annoy,
Since your beauty has my heart empearled.
Pass me by; and only let me say:
Glad I am for pain of loving you,
Glad—for, in the tumult of decay,
Life is nobler than I ever knew.