Poems (Coates 1916)/Volume II/Vestal
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For other versions of this work, see Vestal.
VESTAL
SHE dwelt apart, as one whom love passed by,
Yet in her heart love glowed with steadfast beam;
And as the moonlight on a wintry stream
With paly radiance doth glorify
All barren things that in its circle lie,
So, from within, love shed so fair a gleam
About her, that it made her desert seem
A paradise, abloom immortally.
Some rashly pitied her; but, to atone,
If one perchance gazed long upon her face,
He grew to feel himself more strangely lone—
Love lent her look such amplitude of grace;
Yet who that would have made that love his own
Aught worthy had to offer in its place?