Sleep with honey-dews hath bound her, Sleep unwaked by day; Through the forest growing round her None may take their way, For it is a path forbidden By the words of power; There the beauty must be hidden Till the appointed hour; Till the young deliverer cometh, And the maiden life resumeth. Purple fruit and golden chalice Lie upon the floor; For, in that enchanted palace, All is as before. There still is the censer burning, With its perfumed flame; Years on many years returning, See it still the same; It will burn till light re-living In those closed eyes quench its giving. There her ivory lute, too, slumbers On the haunted ground, Silent are its once sweet numbers, Like all things around; On her cheek the rose is breathing With its softest red; And the auburn hair is wreathing Round the graceful head: Changeth not that rosy shade, Stirreth not that auburn braid. Hath the wild west wind then only Leave to come and weep? Is the lovely one left lonely To her charmed sleep? No, when yon full moon has risen O'er the azure lake, Cometh one to that sweet prison For the sleeper's sake; On that only moonlit hour Hath the gentle fairy power. Then she calls fair spirits nigh her, Each one with a dream, So with sweet thoughts to supply her, And those shadows seem Real as life, but that each vision Hath a lovelier ray, More etherial and elysian Than earth's common day. Human thoughts and feelings keep Life in that enchanted sleep. Soon o'er that dark pine and laurel Will a youth prevail: Is there not a gentle moral In that fairy tale? Like that maiden's sleep unwaking, Slumbereth woman's heart, Till Love comes, that slumber breaking For life's loveliest part. Ah, the heart which it must waken, Soon it will mourn its rest forsaken! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DOMESDAY BOOK: FATHER WHIMSETT by EDGAR LEE MASTERS TO AMERICA, ON HER FIRST SONS FALLEN IN THE GREAT WAR by E. M. WALKER THE WHITE BIRDS by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS THE TEARS OF A PAINTER by VINCENT BOURNE SONNETS OF SEVEN CITIES: NEW ORLEANS by BERTON BRALEY THE RETURN OF THE DRUSES; A TRAGEDY by ROBERT BROWNING ON SAMUEL ROGERS by GEORGE GORDON BYRON |