La Figlia Che Piange

   O quam te memorem Virgo ...

 Stand on the highest pavement of the stair--

 Lean on a garden urn--

 Weave, weave the sunlight in your hair--

 Clasp your flowers to you with a pained surprise--

 Fling them to the ground and turn

 With a fugitive resentment in your eyes:

 But weave, weave the sunlight in your hair.

 So I would have had him leave,

 So I would have had her stand and grieve,

 So he would have left

 As the soul leaves the body torn and bruised,

 As the mind deserts the body it has used.

 I should find

 Some way incomparably light and deft,

 Some way we both should understand,

 Simple and faithless as a smile and shake of the hand.

 She turned away, but with the autumn weather

 Compelled my imagination many days,

 Many days and many hours:

 Her hair over her arms and her arms full of flowers.

 And I wonder how they should have been together!

 I should have lost a gesture and a pose.

 Sometimes these cogitations still amaze

The troubled midnight and the noon's repose.