And forth into the fields I went,
And Nature's living motion lent
The pulse of hope to discontent.
I wondered at the bounteous hours,
The slow result of winter showers:
You scarce could see the grass for flowers.
I wondered, while I paced along:
The woods were filled so full with song,
There seemed no room for sense of wrong.
So variously seemed all things wrought,
I marvelled how the mind was brought
To anchor by one gloomy thought;
And wherefore rather I made choice
To commune with that barren voice,
Than him that said, "Rejoice! rejoice!"
O, LADY FLORA, let me speak:
A pleasant hour has past away
While, dreaming on your damask cheek,
The dewy sister-eyelids lay.
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 see the vision that I saw,
Then take the broidery-frame, and add
A crimson to the quaint Macaw,
And I will tell it. Turn
Nor look with that too-earnest eyeThe rhymes are dazzled from their place, And ordered words asunder fly.
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.
Faint shadows, vapors lightly curled,
Faint murmurs from the meadows come.
Like hints and echoes of the world
To spirits folded in the womb.
Soft lustre bathes the range of urns
On every slanting terrace-lawn.
The fountain to his place returns
Deep in the garden lake withdrawn.
Here droops the banner on the tower,
On the hall-hearths the festal fires,
The peacock in his laurel bower,
The parrot in his gilded wires.
Roof-haunting martins warm their eggs
In these, in those the life is stayed.
The mantles from the golden pegs
Droop sleepily: no sound is made,
Not even of a gnat that sings.
More like a picture seemeth all
Than those old portraits of old kings,
That watch the sleepers from the wall.
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,
The beams, that through the Oriel shine,
Make prisms in every carven glass,
And beaker brimmed with noble wine.
Each baron at the banquet sleeps,
Grave faces gathered in a ring.
His state the king reposing keeps.
He must have been a jovial king.
All round a hedge upshoots, and shows
At distance like a little wood;
Thorns, ivies, woodbine, mistletoes,
And grapes
with bunches red as blood;
All creeping plants, a wall of green
Close-matted, burr and brake and briar,
And glimpsing over these, just seen,
High up, the topmost palace-spire.
When will the hundred summers die,
And thought and time be born again,
And newer knowledge, drawing nigh,
Bring truth that sways the soul of men?
Here all things in their place remain,
As all were ordered, ages since.
Come, Care and Pleasure, Hope and Pain,
And bring the fated fairy Prince.
Year after year unto her feet,
She lying on her couch alone,
Across the purple coverlet,
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
In palace chambers far apart.
The fragrant tresses are not stirred
That lie upon her charmed heart.
She sleeps: on either hand upswells
The gold-fringed pillow lightly prest:
She sleeps, nor dreams, but ever dwells
A perfect form in perfect rest.
All precious things, discovered late,
To those that seek them issue forth;
For love in sequel works with fate,
And draws the veil from hidden worth
He travels far from other skies-
His mantle glitters on the rocks—
A fairy Prince, with joyful eyes,
And lighter-footed than the fox.
The bodies and the bones of those
That strove in other days to pass,
Are withered in the thorny close,
Or scattered blanching in the grass.
He gazes on the silent dead:
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;
For all his life the charm did talk
About his path, and hover near
With words of promise in his walk,
And whispered voices at his ear.
More close and close his footsteps wind;
The magic music in his heart
Beats quick and quicker, till he find
The quiet chamber far apart.
His spirit flutters like a lark,
He stoops-to kiss her-on his knee.
Love, if thy tresses be so dark,
How dark those hidden eyes must be!"
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,
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