The Mind

Amor Mysticus

by Helen Hay Whitney 1875–1944

From Sonnets and Songs (1905)

The Mind

Not you, nor all the gauds that Fate bestows,
Can make me swerve so little from my dream.
Across my veil of mystery you seem
Perhaps a little dearer than the rose,
Perhaps more fair than the long light that flows
Between the lids of twilight. But the gleam
Of iris on the breast of wisdom's stream
Is of a radiance that no rival knows.

My heart is not my heart, or it might chance
To sorrow for the sorrow in your tears;
My soul is locked against all circumstance
Of life or love or death or heaven or hell;
I have no place for laughter in my years,
No room where little, little love might dwell.

MLA

Whitney, Helen Hay. “Amor Mysticus.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/whitney_hh/78/.

Chicago

Whitney, Helen Hay. “Amor Mysticus.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/whitney_hh/78/.

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