 | Gemma of The Isles |  |
Scene IV.
—Night. A festival in the Palace Gardens.Enter Lioni and Querini.
Lio.
What think you of this scene? oh, youth like yours,
Youth of both knight and poet, should methinks
Leap up, on fire to greet the bright wild chance
That brought this lovely child to be our queen!
What think you of our Gemma's festival?
Quer.
I think a jubilee more beautiful
Made never yet a fairy-dance of night!
Those lights in fiery dewdrops sprinkled o'er
The mounded gloom of foliage—the soft noise
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Crowding the garden-darkness—nightingales
Bursting with rapture into every silence
That falls by fits upon the perfumed hour—
The hidden harpings out of bowery nooks—
And songs made sad by distance, swelling up
From yonder happy shore, in all its length
One frenzy of Romaikas—
Lio.
Nay, look there!
A few steps to the right of these tall laurels,
And there you see her on that cedar mound,
Enthroned in a wide blaze of light, above
That ring of bright-robed creatures on the turf.
Ay, there 's the graceful consort of the Doge
Beside her darling Princess—at her feet
The Doge's happy son.
Quer.
Happy indeed!
Oh, it is beautiful—too beautiful!
And my heart aches before the luminous vision,
As at the closed gates of a paradise,
Not lost, but never entered.
Lio.
What sad words
Are these I hear you murmuring to yourself?—
She rises!
Quer.
And with all her shining train
Sweeps in a stream of light back to the palace.
She 's gone—the festival is closed for me,
And yet these idle revellers remain,
Unconscious that their star has left the sky.
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Come, let us wander to a lower terrace,
Whence we can watch the dancers on the shore.
'T will bring me back a hundred joys of youth,
Our island's gloom so long had made to me
A bitter recollection. Let us listen
To this up-floating strain, so sweetly loud.
Song from below.
Come, the dancers wait thee, maiden! maiden with the eyes of fire!
Come, the bounding ring to lead in, where the dancers never tire!
Maiden with the wild, sweet smile curling in the lips of red,
Come and lead our mad Romaika, as our loveliest oft have led.
Come, the bounding ring to lead in, where the dancers never tire!
Maiden with the wild, sweet smile curling in the lips of red,
Come and lead our mad Romaika, as our loveliest oft have led.
Up! we wait thee, loitering beauty! up, and deck thyself in haste!
Streaming from the cap of scarlet, loose thy tresses to the waist!
Part them from thy scornful brows, set their black on fire with flowers!
Then, whilst the warm moon allows, come and dance away the hours!
Streaming from the cap of scarlet, loose thy tresses to the waist!
Part them from thy scornful brows, set their black on fire with flowers!
Then, whilst the warm moon allows, come and dance away the hours!
If I lead your mad Romaika, not a link your chain must miss—
Though I plunge it in the breaker, though I whirl it o'er th' abyss!
Yes, we follow! let us go! wild hearts throbbing to begin!
But the lyre and flute too slow, curb th' impatient rapture in!
Though I plunge it in the breaker, though I whirl it o'er th' abyss!
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But the lyre and flute too slow, curb th' impatient rapture in!
Now, a fire from brow to brow kindles with the kindling strings!
Faster, faster, faster! now, life begins to mount on wings!
Into magic air she darts, and we follow with a bound!
Up to heaven it whirls our hearts, and the brain spins round and round!
Faster, faster, faster! now, life begins to mount on wings!
Into magic air she darts, and we follow with a bound!
Up to heaven it whirls our hearts, and the brain spins round and round!
Onward, onward, youth and maiden! How she wildly holds her way,
Though our feet in foam are hidden, and the splashing of the spray
Into all our glowing faces lightly tosses back our laughter—
Still the flying wave she chases, follow, follow, follow after!
Though our feet in foam are hidden, and the splashing of the spray
Into all our glowing faces lightly tosses back our laughter—
Still the flying wave she chases, follow, follow, follow after!
Oh, Panagia! from our feet slide the safe supporting sands!
Was it death we rushed to meet with these interlacing hands?
Cruel, lovely, fatal stranger! fair fiend, luring us to doom!
Wild eyes smiling on our danger! down we dance into the tomb!
Was it death we rushed to meet with these interlacing hands?
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Wild eyes smiling on our danger! down we dance into the tomb!
Quer.
Hark, hark, what shrieks! that is no sound of mirth!
Lio.
What strange disaster, what new horror's this?
Quer.
I 'll to the beach and see.
Lio.
I 'll not delay you
With my too feeble steps. Haste, haste my friend!
[Exit Querini.
| Gemma of The Isles | |