 | Poems |  |
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LINES.
A tender word outspoken,
A tender glance returned,
And thoughtless peace was broken,
And quenchless passion burned.
A tender glance returned,
And thoughtless peace was broken,
And quenchless passion burned.
Thenceforth, forever after,
Shadows filled her eyes,
And a low, sad laughter,
Like the sweet uprise
Of melodious fountains
'Mid the Elf-land mountains,
Fell from her, in seeming
Of enraptured dreaming,
Caught from trancèd skies.
Shadows filled her eyes,
And a low, sad laughter,
Like the sweet uprise
Of melodious fountains
'Mid the Elf-land mountains,
Fell from her, in seeming
Of enraptured dreaming,
Caught from trancèd skies.
How the holy story,
Her deep heart's mystery,
Like a chastened glory,
Beautiful to see,
Shone forth, softly, faintly,
With a radiance saintly,
From each pensive feature—
[Oh! divinest Nature,
Once bound up in me!]
Her deep heart's mystery,
Like a chastened glory,
66
Shone forth, softly, faintly,
With a radiance saintly,
From each pensive feature—
[Oh! divinest Nature,
Once bound up in me!]
Well do I remember
That fair Italian face,
But a drear December
Hath eclipsed its grace;
December of the stormy scorn,
Of folly and of madness born,
That season of infuriate weather,
When Love and Hope went down together.
That fair Italian face,
But a drear December
Hath eclipsed its grace;
December of the stormy scorn,
Of folly and of madness born,
That season of infuriate weather,
When Love and Hope went down together.
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