 | Madrigals, songs and sonnets |  |
161
XI. A PICTURE.
She tapp'd her scarlet slipper listlesslyAgainst the hollow rushes on the floor,
And twined a rose, deep crimson to the core,
Among the golden waving luxury
Of her loose hair; an orange-girdled bee
Raised with his boisterous song of honey-lore
Her languid eyes, that idly watch'd before
The sunlight creeping upward to her knee:
A step came suddenly upon the stair,
A firm foot from the silence climbing higher:—
The sound woke all her wan face to a flush;
Down slipp'd the rose-bud from her floating hair:—
A pause while every feature flash'd with fire:
Then love met love in one entrancing rush!
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