The Knight and The Enchantress With Other Poems. By Lady Emmeline Stuart-Wortley |
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LINES
FROM “THE CIRCASSIAN;”
AN UNPUBLISHED POEM. |
 | The Knight and The Enchantress |  |
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LINES FROM “THE CIRCASSIAN;” AN UNPUBLISHED POEM.
Lo! the lightning-limbed Antelope leaps o'er the plain,
His footsteps are light, quick, and noiseless as rain;
And graceful and free as the laugh of a child,
Are his glad, buoyant movements, all wanton and wild.
His footsteps are light, quick, and noiseless as rain;
And graceful and free as the laugh of a child,
Are his glad, buoyant movements, all wanton and wild.
So leaped and so bounded the heart of my youth,
All fearless with gladness—all glowing with truth;
But the thorns o'er its track scattered frequent and thick,
Have wounded it even to the core and the quick.
All fearless with gladness—all glowing with truth;
But the thorns o'er its track scattered frequent and thick,
Have wounded it even to the core and the quick.
The lightning-limbed Antelope still scours the plain,
But my heart and my footstep both know the dull chain.
Oh! where shall I turn, or for solace or aid?
My freedom is lost, and my hope is betrayed!
But my heart and my footstep both know the dull chain.
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My freedom is lost, and my hope is betrayed!
Ye past hours of delight! ye glad golden-winged hours!
When I fostered my birds, and I tended my flowers;
When Hope's living star shone supreme in the skies,
And but set—if it set—e'en still lovelier to rise.
When I fostered my birds, and I tended my flowers;
When Hope's living star shone supreme in the skies,
And but set—if it set—e'en still lovelier to rise.
Lo! the lightning-limbed Antelope bounds o'er the plain,
With nought to impede him—with nought to restrain:
Unwearied, untrembling—free, fearless, and lone;
With the Desert, the Fountains, the Sunshine its own.
With nought to impede him—with nought to restrain:
Unwearied, untrembling—free, fearless, and lone;
With the Desert, the Fountains, the Sunshine its own.
Ah! the desert, and all its dim haunts still are mine;
But the sunbeams no more o'er my pathway may shine;
But the fountains—the fountains for ever are lost;—
Soonest hidden from those who could prize them the most.
But the sunbeams no more o'er my pathway may shine;
But the fountains—the fountains for ever are lost;—
Soonest hidden from those who could prize them the most.
| The Knight and The Enchantress | |