Francis William Bourdillon

Sonnet (Oft had I felt, like pure Endymion)

Oft had I felt, like pure Endymion,
Such love for the sweet moon, that I had well
Believed her able on earth to love and dwell
With whatso man she set her love upon;
But as I wandered once when day was done
Beside the murmuring, moon-lit ocean-swell,
Sudden thy silent beauty on me shone,
Fair as the moon had give thee all her spell.
Then, as Endymion had found on earth,
In unchanged beauty but in fashion changed,
Her whom I loved so long; so felt I then,
Not that a new love in my heart had birth,
But that the old, that far from reach had ranged,
Was now on earth, and to be loved of men.