I TOOK my flute among the primroses That lined the hill along the brown church-wall, For she was there; till shades began to fall, I piped my songs out like a bird at ease, When suddenly the distant litanies Ceased, and she came, and passed beyond recall, And left me throbbing, heart and lips and all, And vanished down the vistaed cypress-trees; Ah! sweet, that motion of harmonious limbs Drove all my folly hence, but left me faint! Oh! be not, my desire, so wholly saint, That I must woo thee to the rhythm of hymns! Ah, me! my dizzy brain dissolves and swims! And all my body thrills with fond constraint! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE QUESTION ANSWER'D by WILLIAM BLAKE A LETTER TO HER HUSBAND, ABSENT UPON PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT by ANNE BRADSTREET THE LADY'S 'YES' by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING MOTHER'S LOVE by THOMAS BURBIDGE A BALLAD OF LIFE by ALGERNON CHARLES SWINBURNE THE CHURCH OF BROU by MATTHEW ARNOLD |