Dieu d’Amour

Edith Wharton’s Poetry

Introduction

This meditation on beauty was occasioned by Wharton’s 1926 travel to Cyprus and Saint Hilarion Castle, called Dieu d’Amour by the French. Her diary records: “3 hours in motor, an hour on donkey & foot. Very steep.” Wharton was sixty-four, still adventurous and open to being captivated.
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Dieu d’Amour

Beauty hath two great wings
That lift me to her height,
Though steep her secret dwelling clings
‘Twixt earth and light.
Thither my startled soul she brings
In a murmur and stir of plumes,
And blue air cloven,
And in aerial rooms
Windowed on starry springs
Shows me the singing looms
Whereon her worlds are woven;

Then, in her awful breast,
Those heights descending,
Bears me, a child at rest,
At the day’s ending,
Till earth, familiar as a nest,
Again receives me,
And Beauty veiled in night,
Benignly bending,
Drops from the sinking west
One feather of our flight,
And on faint sandals leaves me.

Enjoy other poems

Faun’s Song
A Vision
Happiness
Mansion admission tickets go on sale April 28 for Mount Members and May 5 for the public
Mansion admission tickets go on sale April 28 for Mount Members and May 5 for the public

Opening May 9

Our doors will officially open for the Summer season on May 9, 2026. We look forward to welcoming you then!

Dieu d’Amour