FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   >>  
, or to urge anew A claim contested. For my days are few; My days, I think, are few upon the earth Since I must shun the joys I would pursue. iii. I am not worthy of the Heaven I name When I name thee; and yet to win the same Is still my dream. I strive as best I can To live uprightly on the vaunted plan Of old-world sages. But I strive not well; And thoughts conflicting which I cannot quell Make me despondent; and I quake thereat, As at the shuddering of a doomsday bell. iv. To die for thee were more than my desert; To live for thee to keep thee out of hurt And, like a slave, to wait upon thy will Were more than fame. And lo! I nourish still A sense of calm to feel that thou, at least, Art sorrow-free and honor'd at the feast Which Nature spreads for all contented minds; And that for thee its splendours have increased. v. I stand alone. I stand beneath the trees, I guess their thoughts; I hear them to the breeze Say tender nothings; and I dream the while Of thy white arms, and thy remember'd smile, When, in a spot like this, a year a-gone, I saw thee stoop to pluck from off the lawn A wounded bird that peer'd into thy face As if it took thee for the nymph of dawn! vi. Oh, can it be, as friends of thine affirm That thou'rt a fairy,--that, from term to term, Month after month, belov'd of all good things, Thou'rt seen in forests and in meadow rings Girt for the dance? or like an Oread queen Array'd for council? For the woods convene Their dryad forces when the nights are clear, And nymphs and fawns carouse upon the green. vii. The crescent moon, the Argosy of heaven, Veers for the west across the Pleiads seven, And, out beyond the ridge of Charles's Wain, It seems to come to mooring on the main Of that deep sky, as if awaiting there An angel-guest with sunlight in her hair, A seraph's cousin, or the foster-child Of some centurion of the upper air. viii. Is it thy soul? Has Cynthia call'd for thee In her white boat, to take thee o'er the sea Where suns and stars and constellations bright Are isles of glory,--where a seraph's right Surpasses mine, and makes me seem indeed A base intruder, with a coward's creed And not an angel's, though a Christian born And pledged always to serve thee at thy need? ix. Thou'rt sleeping now; and in thy snowy rest,-- In that seclusion which is like a nest For blameless human maids beheld of those Wh
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   14   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25   26   27   28   29   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38  
39   40   41   >>  



Top keywords:
thoughts
 

seraph

 

strive

 

Charles

 

Pleiads

 
sunlight
 
contested
 

cousin

 
awaiting
 

mooring


council

 

convene

 
meadow
 

forces

 
crescent
 

foster

 
Argosy
 
heaven
 

nights

 

nymphs


carouse

 

Christian

 

pledged

 

intruder

 

coward

 

sleeping

 

beheld

 

blameless

 

seclusion

 

Cynthia


centurion

 
forests
 

Surpasses

 

bright

 

constellations

 
Heaven
 

worthy

 
nourish
 

sorrow

 
contented

splendours
 

spreads

 
Nature
 
conflicting
 

uprightly

 

despondent

 
desert
 

shuddering

 
thereat
 

doomsday