 | New songs of innocence |  |
104
IN THE MOONLIGHT.
Into the moonlight as we gaze—
That silvers all the miry ways;
That makes our neighbours' chimneys brown
The towers of an Italian town,
And round the naked branches weaves
A glory brighter than of leaves—
My maiden quits my clasp outright,
And stands alone there in the night.
That silvers all the miry ways;
That makes our neighbours' chimneys brown
The towers of an Italian town,
And round the naked branches weaves
A glory brighter than of leaves—
My maiden quits my clasp outright,
And stands alone there in the night.
So beautiful, so strange she seems,
Most like a creature of my dreams,
With parted lips and shining eyes
Uplifted to the lustrous skies—
No maid of mortal mould is she,
But some fair spirit, roaming free
From miry earth to mystic heaven,
Of matter by the moonlight shriven!
Most like a creature of my dreams,
With parted lips and shining eyes
Uplifted to the lustrous skies—
No maid of mortal mould is she,
But some fair spirit, roaming free
From miry earth to mystic heaven,
Of matter by the moonlight shriven!
O maiden, in the moonlight there,
Of face and form unearthly fair,
Back to our empty home return—
Back to the hearts that mortal burn
With mortal love to thee, and pain
That thou wouldst go, while they remain!
Life's duties first, before we try
The freedom of the moonlit sky!
Of face and form unearthly fair,
Back to our empty home return—
Back to the hearts that mortal burn
105
That thou wouldst go, while they remain!
Life's duties first, before we try
The freedom of the moonlit sky!
| New songs of innocence | |