FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119  
120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   >>   >|  
th again, Heaping up sweetness till I was afraid That I should die of grief when it did fade. And it DID fade; but while with eager ear I drank its last long echo dying away, I was aware of footsteps that drew near, And round the ivied chancel seemed to stray: O soft above the hallowed place they trod-- Soft as the fall of foot that is not shod! I turned--'twas even so--yes, Eglantine! For at the first I had divined the same; I saw the moon on her shut eyelids shine, And said, "She is asleep:" still on she came; Then, on her dimpled feet, I saw it gleam, And thought--"I know that this is but a dream." My darling! O my darling! not the less My dream went on because I knew it such; She came towards me in her loveliness-- A thing too pure, methought, for mortal touch; The rippling gold did on her bosom meet, The long white robe descended to her feet. The fringed lids dropped low, as sleep-oppressed; Her dreamy smile was very fair to see, And her two hands were folded to her breast, With somewhat held between them heedfully. O fast asleep! and yet methought she knew And felt my nearness those shut eyelids through. She sighed: my tears ran down for tenderness-- And have I drawn thee to me in my sleep? Is it for me thou wanderest shelterless, Wetting thy steps in dewy grasses deep? "O if this be!" I said--"yet speak to me; I blame my very dream for cruelty." Then from her stainless bosom she did take Two beauteous lily flowers that lay therein, And with slow-moving lips a gesture make, As one that some forgotten words doth win: "They floated on the pool," methought she said, And water trickled from each lily's head. It dropped upon her feet--I saw it gleam Along the ripples of her yellow hair. And stood apart, for only in a dream She would have come, methought, to meet me there. She spoke again--"Ah fair! ah fresh they shine! And there are many left, and these are mine." I answered her with flattering accents meet-- "Love, they are whitest lilies e'er were blown." "And sayest thou so?" she sighed in murmurs sweet; "I have nought else to give thee now, mine own! For it is night. Then take them, love!" said she: "They have been costly flowers to thee--and me." While thus she said I took them from her hand, And, overcome with love and nearness, woke; And overcome with ruth that she should stand Barefooted in the grass; that, when she spoke, Her mystic words
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109   110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119  
120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

methought

 

darling

 

eyelids

 
asleep
 
dropped
 

flowers

 
overcome
 

sighed

 

nearness

 

floated


forgotten
 

afraid

 

trickled

 

ripples

 

yellow

 
cruelty
 

stainless

 

grasses

 

moving

 
gesture

beauteous

 
sayest
 

murmurs

 

nought

 

costly

 

Barefooted

 

mystic

 
sweetness
 

whitest

 

lilies


accents

 

flattering

 

Heaping

 

answered

 

wanderest

 

chancel

 

loveliness

 

rippling

 

mortal

 

turned


Eglantine

 

divined

 

hallowed

 

thought

 

dimpled

 

footsteps

 
heedfully
 

shelterless

 

Wetting

 

tenderness