Many-splendored thing

Love is a Many-Splendored Thing was the name of a film and the film was based upon an earlier novel. But the novel took its title from a poem by Francis Thompson, first published in 1913. Titled “The Kingdom of God,” it has a verse that ran: “The angels keep their ancient places;/Turn but a stone and start a wing!/’Tis ye, ‘tis your estranged faces,/That miss the many-splendoured thing.” Note that Thompson, being British, spelled it “splendoured.”