Edith Nesbit

15 August 1858 – 4 May 1924 / Kennington / Surrey / England

White Magic

This is the room to which she came,
And Spring itself came with her;
She stirred the fire of life to flame,
She called all music hither.
Her glance upon the lean white walls
Hung them with cloth of splendour,
And still the rose she dropped recalls
The graces that attend her.

The same poor room, so dull and bare
Before, in consecration,
She breathed upon its common air
The true transfiguration . . .?
This room the same to which she came
For one immortal minute? -
How can it ever be the same
Since she has once been in it!
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