"Rare wine of flowers." -- FLETCHER. A GUSTY wind o'ersweeps the garden close, And, where the jonquil, with the whiterod glows, Riots like some rude hoyden uncontrolled. But here, where sunshine and coy shadows meet, Out gleam the tender eyes of violets sweet, Touched by the vapory noontide's fleeting gold. What subtlest perfume floats serenely up! Ethereal wine that brims each delicate cup, Rifled by viewless Ariels of the air, And lo! methinks from out these fairy flowers Rise the strange shades of half forgotten hours, Pale, tearful, mute, and yet, O heaven, how fair! Yea, fair and marvellous, gliding gently nigh, Some with raised brows and eyes of constancy, Fixed with fond meanings on a goal above. And some faint shades of weary, drooping grace, Each with a nameless pathos on its face, Breathing of heart-break and sad death of love. Slowly they vanish! while these odors steep Spirit and sense, as if in waves of sleep, Mysterious and Lethean; languid streams Flowing through realms of twilight thought apart, Whereon the half-closed petals of the heart Pulse flower-like o'er a whispering tide of dreams: -- Nor wakes the soul to outward sound or sight, Till, noonday beams declining, warm and light, A wood-breeze fans the dreamer's forehead calm; Who feels as one long wrapped from pain and drouth, By magic dreams dreamed in the fervid south, Beneath the golden shadows of the palm. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE NIGHT [NICHT] IS NEAR [NIGH] GONE by ALEXANDER MONTGOMERIE SONG OF THE FLOUR-MILL by EDWIN ARNOLD EMBLEMS OF LOVE: 41. LOVE REQUIRES NO ENTREATIES by PHILIP AYRES GREENES FUNERALLS: SONNET 10. A CATALOGUE OF CERTAINE OF HIS BOOKES by RICHARD BARNFIELD GETHSEMANE by MATILDA BARBARA BETHAM-EDWARDS PSALM 23 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE |