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ReadingWillow structured literacy program for Australian students

O Beauty, Passing Beauty!

Alfred Lord Tennyson·1809–1891
Lines:14Movement:Victorian
O beauty, passing beauty! Sweetest sweet!How can 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 foldMy arms about thee--scarcely dare to speak.And nothing seems to me so wild and bold,As with one kiss to touch thy blessed cheek.Methinks if I should kiss thee, no controlWithin the thrilling brain could keep afloatThe subtle spirit. Even while I spoke,The bare word "kiss" hath made my inner soulTo tremble like a lute string, ere the noteHath melted in the silence that it broke.