University of Virginia Library

I grant your visions nobler—gods, forsooth,
Loom out of your dream shadows—nothing less,
Nor meaner—crowned immortals, smiling down
From their pure heaven, who wear the stars for gems
And braid the burning sunbeams in their hair,
Wreathed round with amaranths, immortal too.
Mine was an earthly vision—all of earth,—
A vision of a little virgin face,
Set like a jewel in the deep wood's shade.
Young face it was, fresh as the freshest rose
That opens while the balmy dews are falling,
Before the break of dawn; athwart the leaves,
Thick-clustered, of a climbing hazle copse,
It fixed me;-just two blue and brooding eyes,
That shone 'twixt golden clouds of floating hair,
Serene as in a picture, till anon,
A mischievous wild breeze, in petulance,
It seemed, at my rapt gaze, with fanning breath
Blended both clouds into one soft eclipse,
A glimmering haze of leaf and tress entwined;
Yet, over-cunning, in the very act,
Uplifted other leaves, and so disclosed
Twin cheeks, blush-mantled o'er, and then a mouth,
Beset all round with little wilful smiles,
Flickering and fluttering, breaking out at last
Into full sunshine;—whereupon the breeze,
Charmed into quietness, its light wings furled,
And the clouds parted, and the azure eyes
Smiled too, and all the place was glorified,
And I, amid the glory, gazed and gazed,
Till..a slight, timid rustle of the bough,—
A low laugh, like a silver harmony,
Threading the silence,—then a tripping step,
And all was over!—Very brief my bliss,
A glimpse, no more,—but I had seen enough
To dream of night and day, and I did dream;
Albeit I knew, in the greenwood, nevermore,
Through any boughs of hazel, or thick shade
Of tangled coppice, should I see again
Such apparition as had blessed me then.—
Ay, taunt me with your wood-nymphs, water-nymphs,
Your demi-gods, and gods Olympian,
Dispensers of the thunder and the calm—
Nobler such visions—I deny not that,
And yet I prize my vision, shrining it
In my securest nook of memory.