Spindrift :: :: University of Virginia Library

From flowery bed
I raised my head
As the grey cock faintly crew,
And shook from my hair
Through the breezy air
A shower of odorous dew.
In the welkin aboon
The waning moon
Yet hung with a star or two;
But the star-gleams failed
And the pale moon paled
When my locks shone brightening through
The vapoury bar
That, eastward far,
Girdled the liquid blue.

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But, from slumber beguiled,
The green earth smiled
Old welcome—ever new!

Line after line
Of the red sunshine
From the marge came gushing o'er;
Like wine brimming up
In a golden cup,
Or waves on a golden shore.
No time had I
My zone to tie,
But, bounding forth in glee,
With bosom bare
And streaming hair
And footsteps swift and free,
With wings outspread
And arms o'erhead
I lit on the sleeping sea;
While ever behind
Came the wanton Wind
Chasing me merrily!

Through my locks of fire,
As through a lyre,

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He played wild reveillé;
And aloud I sang,
Till the dim cope rang
And the waves in Titan-play
With joyous sound
From their caves profound
Leapt to my roundelay.
And the nymphs of the deep
Uprose from sleep
And danced through the pearly spray;
While rosy-red
Loomed bluff and head
O'er many a shadowy bay!

I bridged the brine
With a glittering line
Of topaz and chrysolite,
To the utmost verge
Where—a mighty gurge
Of incandescent light—
The flaming sphere
Burst broad and clear
From the caverns of the night.
And there in the blaze
Of his bickering rays

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I sang my matin hymn—
While burning clouds
Hung round like crowds
Of fire-winged seraphim.

Wider and higher
The fountains of fire
Scattered their golden rain!
I stooped and quaft
A glowing draught,
Till each ethereal vein,
With flame-blood filled,
Delirious thrilled
With rapture keen as pain!
In the fire-lymph now
I laved my brow;
Then spread my plumes again,
And swift as dream,
Or a meteor's gleam,
Shot up the east amain!

As a bright swan may swim
Up a shadowy stream
I clove my shining way;
And before the light

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Of my radiant flight,
In their shrouds of murky grey,
Night's vapoury hosts,
Like frighted ghosts,
Fled cowering west-away.
And wandering forth
Through the sky and the earth—
As a happy child might stray—
O'er mountain and wood,
O'er valley and flood,
In the path of coming day
I scattered flowers,
For my sister hours
To wreath in garlands gay!

But ere noon rides high
In the windless sky,
And my dewy pinions fail,
I flit unseen
Through the forests green
To some enchanted vale,
Where all day long
I dream to the song
Of the dreaming nightingale.

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And when day is sped,
And overhead
The summer moon shines pale,
I leave my lair
And forth on the air
Like a noiseless night-moth sail,
With odours sweet
On my folded feet
From many a flowery dale.

The spirits of eve
Their bright shrouds weave
In the depths of the glowing west;
The planet of love
In the ether above
Uplifts his lambent crest;
And bathed in the balm
Of a breathless calm
Earth turns her to her rest,
And Heaven bends down
With his starry crown
And folds her to his breast;—
While down the tide
Of the breeze I glide
A spirit lone and blest;

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Till beyond the main,
Like a sea-bird, again
I find my secret nest.

There, lulled to sleep
By the murmuring deep
And the night-wind's voice divine—
While the vapours are curled
Round the slumbering world,
And the starry legions twine
Their mystic dance
O'er the dim expanse
Of the deep heaven crystalline,
I weave sweet dreams
Of glades and streams,
Of shadow and sheen and shower,—
Till Phosphor awakes
And his bright torch shakes
Abroad from his airy tower;
Then again I arise
And fill the skies
With joy of the Golden Hour!