Louise de la Valliaere and other poems | ||
39
AT SET OF SUN.
Within the church, long shadows on the wallCome, and are gone; the hours have lingering feet;
And the great organ's pulses rise and fall,
Waking to life in rapturous music sweet,
Weaving a poem ever mystical.
Without, in a high westward world of gold,
As, loth to leave, the sun goes tenderly;
The trailing glories of his vesture's fold,
Amber and rose, and all fair hues that be,
Float all transfigured in a sapphire sea.
In the low hedge the brown birds chirp and sing,
And the wan wild rose opes its jewelled cup
Lighting the briar; the elder blooms are white;
Where late the hawthorn stars were blossoming,
Now woodbine doth its sweet breath render up,
And the rich air grow languorous with delight.
40
O white, unsoilèd dove!—comes here to prayer,
So pure she is, the seraphs scarce were higher;
So sweet, the Summer Wind in warm desire
With fair cool fingers ruffles her soft hair.
So tender, flowers are joyful 'neath her tread;
The loving dumb things gather in her way;
The singing birds from her white hands are fed.
Drop down, O Music, into silence grey!
She comes, my love, my love; O fairer than the day!
She kneels; the light from the rose-window rolled
Streams o'er her burnished hair and fair grand brows,
Staining her white robe with auroral dyes.
Now could I fall and kiss her garments' fold,
And tell her all my love and all my vows,—
Ah! the sweet wonder in her lovely eyes.
Louise de la Valliaere and other poems | ||