Sonnet IX By Alan Seeger

   Amid the florid multitude her face
    Was like the full moon seen behind the lace
    Of orchard boughs where clouded blossoms part
    When Spring shines in the world and in the heart.
    As the full-moon-beams to the ferny floor
    Of summer woods through flower and foliage pour,
    So to my being’s innermost recess
    Flooded the light of so much loveliness;
    She held as in a vase of priceless ware
    The wine that over arid ways and bare
    My youth was the pathetic thirsting for,
    And where she moved the veil of Nature grew
    Diaphanous and that radiance mantled through
    Which, when I see, I tremble and adore.