Collected Poems: With Autobiographical and Critical Fragments By Frederic W. H. Myers: Edited by his Wife Eveleen Myers |
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 | Collected Poems: With Autobiographical and Critical Fragments |  |
251
SWEET SEVENTEEN
I knew a maid; her form and face
Were lily-slender, lily-fair;
Hers was a wild unconscious grace,
A ruddy-golden crown of hair.
Were lily-slender, lily-fair;
Hers was a wild unconscious grace,
A ruddy-golden crown of hair.
Thro' those child-eyes unchecked, untamed,
The happy thoughts transparent flew,
Yet some pathetic touch had tamed
To gentler grey their Irish blue.
The happy thoughts transparent flew,
Yet some pathetic touch had tamed
To gentler grey their Irish blue.
So from her oak a Dryad leant
To look, with wondering glance and gay,
Where Jove, uncrowned and kingly, went
With Maia down the woodland way.
To look, with wondering glance and gay,
Where Jove, uncrowned and kingly, went
With Maia down the woodland way.
Their glory lit the amorous air;
The golden touched the Olympian head;
But Zephyr o'er Cyllene bare
That secret the Immortals said.
The golden touched the Olympian head;
But Zephyr o'er Cyllene bare
That secret the Immortals said.
The nymph they saw not, passing nigh;
She melted in her leafy screen;
But from the boughs that seemed to sigh
A dewdrop trembled on the green.
She melted in her leafy screen;
But from the boughs that seemed to sigh
A dewdrop trembled on the green.
252
That nymph her oak for aye must hold;
The girl has life and hope, and she
Shall hear one day the secret told,
And roam herself in Arcady.
The girl has life and hope, and she
Shall hear one day the secret told,
And roam herself in Arcady.
I see her still; her cheek aglow,
Her gaze upon the future bent;
As one who through the world will go
Beloved, bewitching, innocent.
Her gaze upon the future bent;
As one who through the world will go
Beloved, bewitching, innocent.
| Collected Poems: With Autobiographical and Critical Fragments | |