And forth into the fields I went, I wondered at the bounteous hours, I wondered, while I paced along: So variously seemed all things wrought, And wherefore rather I made choice THE DAY-DREAM. PROLOGUE. O, LADY FLORA, let me speak: As by the lattice you reclined, I went through many wayward moods To see you dreaming and, behind, A summer crisp with shining woods. And I too dreamed, until at last Across my fancy, brooding warm, The reflex of a legend past, And loosely settled into form. And would you have the thought I had, And I will tell it. Turn your face, Nor look with that too-earnest eyeThe rhymes are dazzled from their place, And ordered words asunder fly. THE SLEEPING PALACE. The varying year with blade and sheaf Clothes and reclothes the happy plains; Here rests the sap within the leaf, Here stays the blood along the veins. Soft lustre bathes the range of urns Roof-haunting martins warm their eggs Here sits the Butler with a flask Between his knees, half-drained; and the e The wrinkled steward at his task, The maid-of-honor blooming fair: The page has caught her hand in his : Her lips are severed as to speak: His own are pouted to a kiss: The blush is fixed upon her cheek. Till all the hundred summers pass, All round a hedge upshoots, and shows When will the hundred summers die, Come, Care and Pleasure, Hope and Pain, THE SLEEPING BEAUTY. Year after year unto her feet, The maiden's jet-black hair has grown, On either side her trancéd form Forth streaming from a braid of pearl: The slumbrous light is rich and warm, And moves not on the rounded curl. The silk star-broidered coverlid Unto her limbs itself doth mould Languidly ever; and, amid Her full black ringlets downward rolled, Glows forth each softly-shadowed arm With bracelets of the diamond bright: Her constant beauty doth inform Stillness with love, and day with light. She sleeps her breathings are not heard THE ARRIVAL. All precious things, discovered late, His mantle glitters on the rocks— A fairy Prince, with joyful eyes, The bodies and the bones of those They perished in their daring deeds." This proverb flashes through his head, "The many fail: the one succeeds." He comes, scarce knowing what he seeks: He breaks the hedge: he enters there : The color flies into his cheeks: He trusts to light on something fair; More close and close his footsteps wind; He stoops-to kiss her-on his knee. How dark those hidden eyes must be!" THE REVIVAL. A touch, a kiss! the charm was snapt. There rose a noise of striking clocks, And feet that ran, and doors that clapt, And barking dogs, and crowing cocks; A fuller light illumined all, A breeze through all the garden swept, |