University of Virginia Library

Pleasant it is beneath a tree to lie
And, gazing upward, see the turquoise sky
Broken across by moving emeralds green,
Emeralds all blazing with the golden sheen
The sunlight casts upon them, every leaf
Of colour, green and gold, a shining sheaf,
Shining against the broad background of blue
That burns above and, parted, glistens through,
As though ten thousand maidens' bright blue eyes
Were peeping through the leaves in soft surprise,
Or eyes of fairies in a virtuous glow
Of anger at the mortal stretched below,
Inquisitive to search the mysteries
Deep hidden within the leafy hearts of trees;
Pleasant again to stretch one's being wide,
Unclothed, unfettered, out from side to side,
And, lengthening long arms, oneself at rest
In some soft, grassy, flower-scented nest,
To embrace the whole wide earth in clasp of love,
And feel her green arms slowly close above
Your sinking head, feeling as if you were
Slow-sinking in some scented sea of air,
Or rosy summer-quiet sunset-sea,
Clothed all about with mists of ecstasy;

Yea, the Earth is indeed the poet's bride,
A Queen for ever seated at his side.
Upon the fair broad billow of her breast
His head falls heavily and sinks to rest,
And she bends over him, his hot brow bathing
In her cool ether breath, his limbs enswathing
In wreaths of long-leaved blossoming grass and flowers,
Cooling her hero with the sound of showers
Down-shaken in the distance, breathing rest
In every rising of her gentle breast
And happiness in the downfall, now she twines
About his brow a bower of eglantines,
Or places underneath his sleeping head
Soft cushions woven of roses white and red,
Smoothing with gentle hands his grassy bed,
Now all her art for him the Earth combines
That scents of all her choicest garden flowers
By savour sweet may soothe his sleeping hours,
Building about him misty perfume bowers
From off the universe of blossoms shed;

O great Earth-Goddess, happy indeed is he
That man to whom thy beauties wedded be,
Though all men scorn him, Thou, the Earth, art wide,
And his alone art Thou from side to side,
For him buds, blossoms, flowers and fruits are born,
Wave goldenly for him long leagues of corn,
Forests and rivers, lakes and silent seas,
All shower drops, every whisper of a breeze,
The whole world's wealth of beauty, forms and flowers,
Sweet sounds and scents and sights and woven bowers
Of all fair colours interlaced together,
With all white wild delights of winter weather,
And bare-browed summer revelry, and spring's
Soft ecstasy when all the greenwood rings
With loud love songs of every bird that sings
And happy voices of ten thousand things
Bursting aside their ice-bound wintry tether;
All these are his, the Earth-Queen's bridal dower,
Her secrets all are in the poet's power,
Placed by her gently in his humble hands,
Sweet secrets that he only understands
Of all men, silent secrets of the sea,
Sad secrets some of things that hidden be,
And secrets soft hidden in the hearts of roses,
Others the deep green forest soul discloses,
Others again that smile from out the sky
When sunsets of November seem to dye
The clouds in scarlet, fading with a sigh
Of low wind bitter-breathed across the wold,
Like some bright meteor-life whose tale is told,
Into cold calm-eyed distances of grey,
Hot blue-robed summer secrets of the day,
And secrets of the night his Queen unfolds
To the poet, over him her white hand holds
The great unspeakable silence of the Dark,
Sacred, as some sweet maiden you may mark
From sunlight strong to shield her lover's head
Low lying beside her; from his happy bed
At dawn the Queen awakes him, from her breast
Raising him, right content therein to rest
For ever, and across the world she takes
His soul in great grand glimpses, lonely lakes
He sees beset by snowy mountains tall,
A blue sky burning constant over all,
And wide dim reaches of hot yellow sand,
And flowery visions of a verdant land,
Well watered, smiling, rich from side to side,
Intense in colour, next the dreamers ride
Along the edges of a creeping tide,
Out and away blue distances of sea
Into the infinite ether seem to flee
That sits upon the horizon like a throne
And claims the land and seascape for its own
Brooding above the whole, along the edge
Towers a wave-clomb, black-browed, beetlingledge
Of cliff, kissed here and there by lights of green
And white, deep-carven clefts pierce in between
As where some giant's chisel erst has been
Shining with soothing sound and silver sheen
Of rivulets drawn from out the rocky wedge;
At last he sinks into her arms and sleeps,
And she bends over him, and smiles and weeps,
Soft tears and smiles of Beauty born together
Like rain and sunshine in uncertain weather
Making a beaming rainbow of her face,
White arms she winds about him that embrace
His form as lovingly as arms of roses
Whose wealth of tenderness some wall encloses
With wreaths of flowers and leaves and rich perfume,
Or dark green ivy clusters that entomb
The trunk of some great weary prostrate tree,
She holds her servant safe from harm, and he,
Half conscious of the embraces of his bride,
Floats dimly down the sleepy fast-flowing tide
That runs to meet the quiet dreamful wide
Illimitable haven of the sea.