My love, you looked so radiant tonight,
Seated at your dresser combing your hair,
Crowned with a bright golden halo of light
From the lamp on the stand beside your chair.
Though you demur, I only speak the truth
When I declare, that ‘spite of time, your face
Has never lost the rosy bloom of youth,
And though the passing years have left their trace,
Those marks of grace serve merely to enhance
The beauty that was nature’s gift to you.
And when you caught my eye, as if by chance,
That sparkle in your glance was still there too,
As with one look, you took my breath away
The way you have since that very first day.

So watching you tonight in the darkness
In the warm intimacy of our room,
Once more seduced by the way you undress
And the scent of your feminine perfume,
Performing those essential nightly rites,
Familiar from years of married life,
I thought that alone of the world's delights,
The vision of you, lover and dear wife
Preparing yourself to come to my bed,
Will never fail my senses to inspire;
For only when artifice is removed,
And beauty is unmasked to set afire
The flagging pulse, in that quickening
Of mortal flesh, love finds eternal Spring.