The poem
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 fold My 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 control Within the thrilling brain could keep afloat The subtle spirit. Even while I spoke, The bare word "kiss" hath made my inner soul To tremble like a lute string, ere the note Hath melted in the silence that it broke.
I once had, but have lost, sheet music by Walter Golde that sets this beautiful poem as a song. It is so passionate, so heart-breaking ... Does anybody know how to obtain this piano music? I have a hand written version that is for Bb clarinet, with words. The last few lines on my copy are different. After "blessed cheek" it continues: "But were I loved as I desire to be/ What is there in the great sphere of the earth/ and range of evil between death and birth/ That I should fear if I were loved by thee/ If I were loved by thee?"