Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems By the Lady E. Stuart Wortley. In Three Vols |
I, II, III. |
A SMILE. |
Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | ||
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A SMILE.
A Smile like a thousand zephyrs plays,With its changing and flashing, and fleeting rays,
Round thy lovely lips that so rose-like be,
Like a thousand zephyrs, the light and free,
That fling freshess and beauty around the rose,
Which yet brighter for their soft presence glows.
Like a thousand zephyrs, the light the free,
Like a thousand sunbeams of radiancy,
That shine out and sparkle quick, clear, and bright,
With tints of pure glory and trails of light!
Yet varying still as a varying doubt,
While shedding this splendour of beauty about.
Oh! say—doth that smile type thy gentle heart?
On the wings of change doth that fluttering dart?—
Doth that vary for ever and evermore,
Like waves that in different shapes seek the shore?—
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Or aught that's inconstant, and varying and vain?
No, I will not think it—it must not be,
Oh! worse than death would it be to me.
Methinks thou hast loved me—methinks thou hast known
To love me well, and to love me alone.
But, Oh! if a change should come now o'er thy mind,
If now thou canst fickle be, false, and unkind;
Oh! thy bye-past love a vain thing I call,
And I would thou hadst never loved at all!
Queen Berengaria's Courtesy, and Other Poems | ||