A GOLDEN pallor of voluptuous light Filled the warm southern night: The moon, clear orbed, above the sylvan scene Moved like a stately queen, So rife with conscious beauty all the while, What could she do but smile At her own perfect loveliness below, Glassed in the tranquil flow Of crystal fountains and unruffled streams? Half lost in waking dreams, As down the loneliest forest dell I strayed, Lo! from a neigboring glade, Flashed through the drifts of moonshine, swiftly came A fairy shape of flame. It rose in dazzling spirals overhead, Whence to wild sweetness wed, Poured marvellous melodies, silvery trill on trill; The very leaves grew still On the charmed trees to hearken; while for me, Heart-trilled to ecstasy, I followed -- followed the bright shape that flew, Still circling up the blue, Till as a fountain that has reached its height, Falls back in sprays of light Slowly dissolved, so that enrapturing lay, Divinely melts away Through tremulous spaces to a musicmist, Soon by the fitful breeze How gently kissed Into remote and tender silences. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THERE IS NO DEATH by JOHN LUCKEY MCCREERY ROBIN REDBREAST by MOTHER GOOSE SONNET: 35 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE THE TWO ANGELS by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER PEARLS OF THE FAITH: 76. YA WALI by EDWIN ARNOLD |