 | Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) |  |
[II. O swan, what memories rarely sweet]
O swan, what memories rarely sweet
To your white majesty belong,
While in this public park you meet
The stares and gapes of many a throng?
To your white majesty belong,
While in this public park you meet
The stares and gapes of many a throng?
In willowy grace and stainless hue
Your regal curves are yet akin
To that sleek beauteous bird which drew
The enchanted car of of Lohengrin.
Your regal curves are yet akin
To that sleek beauteous bird which drew
The enchanted car of of Lohengrin.
And while your charms my look enchain,
Sweet visions through my fancy float...
I see some delicate châtelaine
Feed you beside some castle-moat.
Sweet visions through my fancy float...
I see some delicate châtelaine
Feed you beside some castle-moat.
Or when bluff barons lolled at wine,
In far mediæval midnight hours,
I see you where the moonlit Rhine
Wound glittering towers,
In far mediæval midnight hours,
I see you where the moonlit Rhine
Wound glittering towers,
84
While there, in pale mysterious plumes,
Till daybreak fired the ghostly skies,
You weirdly swam through dreamy glooms,
With maddening songs and women's eyes.
Till daybreak fired the ghostly skies,
You weirdly swam through dreamy glooms,
With maddening songs and women's eyes.
St. James's Park, 1889.
| Songs of Doubt and Dream (Poems) | |