 | Romance and revery |  |
118
MOTHS ROUND A LAMP.
The red sun fell two sultry hours before;
No dew has made the lawn's vague spaces damp;
In through my open windows more and more
The giddy moths come reeling round the lamp.
No dew has made the lawn's vague spaces damp;
In through my open windows more and more
The giddy moths come reeling round the lamp.
Alert fantastic shapes of differing kind,
They sweep and swerve in many a fitful speck,
And rouse the old easy commonplace to mind
Of wayward mortals whelmed in piteous wreck.
They sweep and swerve in many a fitful speck,
And rouse the old easy commonplace to mind
Of wayward mortals whelmed in piteous wreck.
From bournes of nature's pastoral silence brought,
Below the night's pure orbs, the wind's faint breath,
What wilful spell, I question of my thought,
Entices them to this mad glaring death?
Below the night's pure orbs, the wind's faint breath,
What wilful spell, I question of my thought,
Entices them to this mad glaring death?
By what perverse doom are they led to meet
This fiery ruin, when so calm and cool
The deep grass drowses at the elms' dim feet,
The moist leaves droop above the starlit pool? ...
This fiery ruin, when so calm and cool
The deep grass drowses at the elms' dim feet,
The moist leaves droop above the starlit pool? ...
119
But while in dreamy watch I linger long,
To duskier coloring my mood recedes,
Till now the tranquil chamber seems to throng
With dark wild imageries of man's misdeeds.
To duskier coloring my mood recedes,
Till now the tranquil chamber seems to throng
With dark wild imageries of man's misdeeds.
And then, like some full rustle of sudden wings,
A long breeze floats disconsolately past
And steals from unseen foliage that it swings,
A murmur of lamentation, till at last,
A long breeze floats disconsolately past
And steals from unseen foliage that it swings,
A murmur of lamentation, till at last,
While the sad pulses of each gradual tone
A sadder meaning from my revery win,
All earth's rebellious agony seems to moan
The curse, the mystery of all human sin!
A sadder meaning from my revery win,
All earth's rebellious agony seems to moan
The curse, the mystery of all human sin!
| Romance and revery | |