I have seen delicate aged women wrought
Most tenderly by Time, their passionate past
By the wise vigils of forgiving thought
Amerced of pain, mere beauty at the last.
So may my soul be chaste, serene, enriched
Like an Etruscan mirror one has found
In kind oblivions, graciously bewitched
With precious patinas, a various round
Of milky opal, or turkis, or emerald,
Glistered with rubies faint and smoky pearls,
Where swirls of incised pattern have enthralled
Figures of sweet archaic gods and girls,
And I shall say: "Thou art a curious toy,
O soul that mirrored Love and Wrath and Joy!"