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[Poems by Fairfield in] The autobiography of Jane Fairfield

embracing a few select poems
Fairfield, Sumner Lincoln (1803-1844)

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[section]
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THE SISTERS OF SAINT CLARA.
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CANTO I.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
 3. 
III.
 4. 
IV.
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V.
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VI.
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VII.
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VIII.
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IX.
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X.
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XI.
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XII.
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XIII.
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XIV.
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XV.
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XVI.
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XVII.
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XVIII.
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XIX.
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CANTO II.
 1. 
I.
 2. 
II.
 3. 
III.
 4. 
IV.
 5. 
V.
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VI.
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VII.
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VIII.
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IX.
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X.
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XI.
 12. 
XII.
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XIII.
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XIV.
  
THE DEATH SCENE.

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XII.

O'er Lusitania's soft-blue moonlight bay
Swells the gay song of reckless gondolier,
While his bark dances, as the waters play,
On the shore waves that glitter bright and clear.
Dim in the distance, marked upon the sky,
Wave the blue pennon and the glimmering sail,
And oft is heard the master's anxious cry
While shoreward sea-boy answers to his hail.
Yet, save his song and their expectant cries,
The world is slumbering in a soft repose,
And spirits from their star-thrones in the skies
Breathe softly as a dew-lipped sleeping rose.
It is the hour when love's communion fills
Eye, lip and heart with rapture's magic light;
When waning Dian, throned on shadowy hills,
Smiles o'er young transports from her azure height.
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Pomegranate, orange, lime and citron groves
Shadow gray turrets and time-honoured towers,
And heaven's pale queen amid their arbours roves,
And counts with tears the melancholy hours.
But hushed is song of happy gondolier,
And fast the shadowy sail ascends on high;—
A step, a form, a voice—“Prince Julian's here!”
“Alfonso, haste! this hour we 'scape or die!”
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