Suppressed Poems of Alfred Lord Tennyson — Sonnet ''Oh beauty, passing beauty''

=Sonnet= Oh, Beauty, passing beauty!

sweetest Sweet!

How canst thou let me waste my youth in sighs;

I only ask to sit beside thy feet.

Thou knowest I dare not look into thine eyes, Might I but kiss thy hand!

I dare not fold My arms about thee--scarcely dare to speak.

And nothing seems to me so wild and bold, As with one kiss to touch thy blessèd cheek.

Methinks if I should kiss thee, no control Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat The subtle spirit.

Even while I spoke, The bare word KISS hath made my inner soul To tremble like a lutestring, ere the note Hath melted in the silence that it broke.

XXXII

=The Hesperides=