 | Fantasy and Passion |  |
BARCAROLLE.
The lake lies with the sheen on it
Of day's last look serene on it,
And round its rim in the gloaming dim the shades of the low hills lean on it!
No slightest sound the charmful quiet mars;
The hollow heaven is yearning for its stars!
Of day's last look serene on it,
And round its rim in the gloaming dim the shades of the low hills lean on it!
No slightest sound the charmful quiet mars;
The hollow heaven is yearning for its stars!
With strange half-proud humility,
With sumptuous tranquillity,
Thou art lounging, Sweet, at my flattered feet, in statuesque immobility,
Against thy bosom's chaste superb repose
One heavy blood-red velvet-petalled rose!
With sumptuous tranquillity,
Thou art lounging, Sweet, at my flattered feet, in statuesque immobility,
Against thy bosom's chaste superb repose
One heavy blood-red velvet-petalled rose!
Thine affluent hair, so billowlike,
The bends of thy form, so willowlike,
Thy face so clear from the red cachemire folded under its pale cheek pillowlike;
The unrippled lake, the gloom, the calm ... all dower
Memory with one imperishable hour!
The bends of thy form, so willowlike,
Thy face so clear from the red cachemire folded under its pale cheek pillowlike;
The unrippled lake, the gloom, the calm ... all dower
Memory with one imperishable hour!
74
While we drift now to leeward, Love,
I can feel my life turn theeward, Love,
As a blossom will see some great gold bee and bow all its beauty beeward, Love!
From thine eyes' night my perfect day is made!
I seek them, as the ivy seeks the shade!
I can feel my life turn theeward, Love,
As a blossom will see some great gold bee and bow all its beauty beeward, Love!
From thine eyes' night my perfect day is made!
I seek them, as the ivy seeks the shade!
Look how the pines loom towerwise,
Skirting the lake-edge bowerwise!
The stars wait still ere they flock to fill the heavenly meadows flowerwise!
But Hesper in the darkening West burns now,
Like some grand diamond on some swart queen's brow!
Skirting the lake-edge bowerwise!
The stars wait still ere they flock to fill the heavenly meadows flowerwise!
But Hesper in the darkening West burns now,
Like some grand diamond on some swart queen's brow!
Ah, Love, with the rich day failing so,
With the summer sunset paling so,
I would always rest on the lustrous breast of the lake, forever sailing so,
And feel, at languorous rapture's utmost goal,
Peace lightly sweep the lute-strings of my soul!
With the summer sunset paling so,
I would always rest on the lustrous breast of the lake, forever sailing so,
And feel, at languorous rapture's utmost goal,
Peace lightly sweep the lute-strings of my soul!
Heedless if skies be thunderful,
Heedless if time be plunderful,
And only sure of the splendor pure in those fathomless eyes and wonderful,
My soul would soar beyond all time, as soars
The upleaping lark through dawn's white corridors!
Heedless if time be plunderful,
And only sure of the splendor pure in those fathomless eyes and wonderful,
My soul would soar beyond all time, as soars
The upleaping lark through dawn's white corridors!
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