 | Poems Lyrical and Dramatic |  |
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TO CECILIA.
By the pure spirit in each gaze revealed,
Which from thine eyelid's heavy-fringed recess
Like those pale fires the meadow-grasses shield,
Subdues the sense, when star-beams mild caress
The heavy odours from the jasmine flowers
Whose influence of love each swooning gale o'er-powers;
Which from thine eyelid's heavy-fringed recess
Like those pale fires the meadow-grasses shield,
Subdues the sense, when star-beams mild caress
The heavy odours from the jasmine flowers
Whose influence of love each swooning gale o'er-powers;
By the fair locks, which, like in form and dye
To flecks of golden cloud when day has set,
Clasp the calm twilight of thy brow; and by
The soft sweet smile half mingled with regret
Like rippling moonlight on an endless sea,
Which seems to lead the gaze into eternity;
To flecks of golden cloud when day has set,
Clasp the calm twilight of thy brow; and by
The soft sweet smile half mingled with regret
Like rippling moonlight on an endless sea,
Which seems to lead the gaze into eternity;
I pray thee tell what secret whisperings
The elves that dwell in the moon's quivering beams
Have spoken to thee when their viewless wings
Have brushed thy soothèd temples into dreams,
Or whence hath sprung amid earth's wilderness
The secret fountain-head of so much loveliness.
The elves that dwell in the moon's quivering beams
164
Have brushed thy soothèd temples into dreams,
Or whence hath sprung amid earth's wilderness
The secret fountain-head of so much loveliness.
| Poems Lyrical and Dramatic | |