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Ballads and Lyrics of Old France

by Andrew Lang

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Metempsychosis

I shall not see thee, nay, but I shall know
   Perchance, thy grey eyes in another’s eyes,
Shall guess thy curls in gracious locks that flow
   On purest brows, yea, and the swift surmise
   Shall follow, and track, and find thee in disguise
Of all sad things, and fair, where sunsets glow,
When through the scent of heather, faint and low,
   The weak wind whispers to the day that dies.

From all sweet art, and out of all ‘old rhyme,’
   Thine eyes and lips are light and song to me;
The shadows of the beauty of all time,
   Carven and sung, are only shapes of thee;
Alas, the shadowy shapes! ah, sweet my dear
Shall life or death bring all thy being near?

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