 | Songs of the sea, with other poems |  |
104
FANTASY AND FACT.
Thou say'st we never met before
Within the world's wide space;
And yet the more I gaze, the more
I recollect thy face:
Each feature to my mind recalls
An image of the past,
Which, where the shade of Memory falls,
Is sacred to the last.
Within the world's wide space;
And yet the more I gaze, the more
I recollect thy face:
Each feature to my mind recalls
An image of the past,
Which, where the shade of Memory falls,
Is sacred to the last.
But she whose charms revive in thine
Was not, alas! of earth;
And yet for earth not too divine,
Though Fancy gave her birth.
She haunted me by summer streams,
And burst upon my sight,
When, through the pleasant Land of Dreams,
I roamed at will, by night.
Was not, alas! of earth;
And yet for earth not too divine,
Though Fancy gave her birth.
105
And burst upon my sight,
When, through the pleasant Land of Dreams,
I roamed at will, by night.
Lost idol! why didst thou depart?
O, let thine earnest eyes—
Abstraction, vision, though thou art—
Once more my heart surprise!
She comes, a fair and sylph-like girl:
Whom, happy, doth she seek?
And raven curls their links unfurl
Adown her radiant cheek.
O, let thine earnest eyes—
Abstraction, vision, though thou art—
Once more my heart surprise!
She comes, a fair and sylph-like girl:
Whom, happy, doth she seek?
And raven curls their links unfurl
Adown her radiant cheek.
I clasp her hands in mine once more—
Again I am a boy!
The past shows nothing to deplore,
The future is all joy.
We wander through deserted halls;
We climb the wooded height;
We hear the roar of waterfalls,
And watch the eagle's flight.
Again I am a boy!
The past shows nothing to deplore,
The future is all joy.
We wander through deserted halls;
We climb the wooded height;
We hear the roar of waterfalls,
And watch the eagle's flight.
106
We stand where sunset colors lie
Upon a lake at rest;
And O, what clouds of Tyrian dye
Are sloping down the west!
And high above the purple pile,
The evening star appears;
Till, as we gaze, the loved one's smile,
Like twilight's, ends in tears.
Upon a lake at rest;
And O, what clouds of Tyrian dye
Are sloping down the west!
And high above the purple pile,
The evening star appears;
Till, as we gaze, the loved one's smile,
Like twilight's, ends in tears.
I turn to thee, and start to see
Again that bright ideal,—
The eyes, the shape, the ringlets free,
The fanciful made real!
Two visions have waylaid my heart,
A false one and a true;
And, by the soul of truth, thou art
The fairer of the two!
Again that bright ideal,—
The eyes, the shape, the ringlets free,
The fanciful made real!
Two visions have waylaid my heart,
A false one and a true;
And, by the soul of truth, thou art
The fairer of the two!
| Songs of the sea, with other poems | |