 | Poems and Sonnets |  |
132
A SERENADE.
Wake, sweet, look to the life of the air,
And the scent of the winds below,
The moonlit night is in love with the light
Of a half-seen shimmer of snow!
And the scent of the winds below,
The moonlit night is in love with the light
Of a half-seen shimmer of snow!
Draw back the curtain—thy true love stands
With eyes that climb and aspire,
As the tendrils wind convolvulus-twined,
To Beauty on high to be nigher;
With eyes that climb and aspire,
As the tendrils wind convolvulus-twined,
To Beauty on high to be nigher;
The scent of the flower-beds all night long
Has leave, you know it, to play
By your bedside, and why should you chide
Feet low on the ground that stay?
Has leave, you know it, to play
By your bedside, and why should you chide
Feet low on the ground that stay?
133
Let the light of the moon fall soft on an arm
By the window-sill sweet shining,
Like ivory white set in jet-black bright
Stray tresses of hair for a lining;
By the window-sill sweet shining,
Like ivory white set in jet-black bright
Stray tresses of hair for a lining;
I thought you were fair, I thought you a queen,
When I looked on you, love, by day,
But little I thought of the radiance brought
By night when the sun is away!
When I looked on you, love, by day,
But little I thought of the radiance brought
By night when the sun is away!
Your eyes were deep, and I sank therein,
But never I thought to swim
In a sea so deep, my soul to steep
In ecstasy up to the brim!
But never I thought to swim
In a sea so deep, my soul to steep
In ecstasy up to the brim!
Sweet, blow me a kiss—O flowers on high
Stretch petals of hands and down
To my lips “with care” bring its fragrance fair,
In love of it life I drown!
Stretch petals of hands and down
To my lips “with care” bring its fragrance fair,
In love of it life I drown!
| Poems and Sonnets | |