The wandering airs they faint
On the dark, the silent stream
The champak odours fail

Like sweet thoughts in a dream;

The nightingale's complaint

It dies upon her heart,

As I must die on thine,

O belovéd as thou art!

O lift me from the grass !
I die, I faint, I fail!
Let thy love in kisses rain

On my lips and eyelids pale.
My cheek is cold and white, alas!
My heart beats loud and fast;
O press it close to thine again
Where it will break at last.

173

P. B. SHELLEY.

She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies,
And all that's best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes,
Thus mellow'd to that tender light

Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impair'd the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o'er her face,
Where thoughts serenely sweet express

How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek and o'er that brow
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow
But tell of days in goodness spent,

A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent.

LORD BYRON.

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174

She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleam'd upon my sight ;
A lovely apparition, sent

To be a moment's ornament ;
Her eyes as stars of Twilight fair;
Like Twilight's, too, her dusky hair ;
But all things else about her drawn
From May-time and the cheerful dawn ;
A dancing shape, an image gay,
To haunt, to startle, and waylay.

I saw her upon nearer view,
A spirit, yet a woman too!

Her household motions light and free,
And steps of virgin-liberty;

A countenance in which did meet
Sweet records, promises as sweet;
A creature not too bright or good
For human nature's daily food,
For transient sorrows, simple wiles,

Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

And now I see with eye serene
The very pulse of the machine;
A being breathing thoughtful breath,
A traveller between life and death:
The reason firm, the temperate will,
Endurance, foresight, strength, and skill ;
A perfect woman, nobly plann'd
To warn, to comfort, and command;
And yet a Spirit still, and bright
With something of angelic light.

W. WORDSWORTH.

175

She is not fair to outward view

As many maidens be ;

Her loveliness I never knew

Until she smiled on me.

O then I saw her eye was bright,
A well of love, a spring of light.

But now her looks are coy and cold,
To mine they ne'er reply,
And yet I cease not to behold

The love-light in her eye:

Her very frowns are fairer far
Than smiles of other maidens are.

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H. COLERIDGE.

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176

I fear thy kisses, gentle maiden ;
Thou needest not fear mine;
My spirit is too deeply laden
Ever to burthen thine.

I fear thy mien, thy tones, thy motion; 5
Thou needest not fear mine;

Innocent is the heart's devotion
With which I worship thine.

P. B. SHELLEY.

177

THE LOST LOVE

She dwelt among the untrodden ways
Beside the springs of Dove;

A maid whom there were none to praise,
And very few to love:

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

-Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and oh,

The difference to me !

W. WORDSWORTH.

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178

I travell❜d among unknown men
In lands beyond the sea;

Nor, England! did I know till then
What love I bore to thee.

'Tis past, that melancholy dream!
Nor will I quit thy shore
A second time; for still I seem
To love thee more and more.

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Among thy mountains did I feel
The joy of my desire;

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And she I cherish'd turn'd her wheel

Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings show'd, thy nights conceal'd The bowers where Lucy play'd;

And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes survey'd.

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W. WORDSWORTH.

179

THE EDUCATION OF NATURE

Three years she grew in sun and shower ;
Then Nature said, A lovelier flower

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On earth was never sown :

This child I to myself will take;
She shall be mine, and I will make
A lady of my own.

Myself will to my darling be

Both law and impulse

and with me

The girl, in rock and plain,

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In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, 10 Shall feel an overseeing power

To kindle or restrain.

She shall be sportive as the fawn
That wild with glee across the lawn
Or up the mountain springs;

And hers shall be the breathing balm,
And hers the silence and the calm
Of mute insensate things.

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The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend ;

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Nor shall she fail to see

E'en in the motions of the storm

Grace that shall mould the maiden's form

'And vital feelings of delight

Shall rear her form to stately height,

Her virgin bosom swell

Such thoughts to Lucy I will give

While she and I together live

Here in this happy dell.'

Thus Nature spake The work was done—

How soon my Lucy's race was run!

She died, and left to me

This heath, this calm and quiet scene ;
The memory of what has been,

And never more will be.

W. WORDSWORTH.

180

A slumber did my spirit seal;

I had no human fears :

She seem'd a thing that could not feel

The touch of earthly years.

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