Sit down beside me, Isabel, @3Here@1, dearest, where the moonbeam fell Just now so fairy-like and well. @3Now@1 thou art dress'd for paradise! I am star-stricken with thine eyes! My soul is lolling on thy sighs! Thy hair is lifted by the moon Like flowers by the low breath of June! Sit down, sit down -- how came we here? Or is it all but a dream, my dear? You know that most enormous flower -- That rose -- that what d'ye call it -- that hung Up like a dog-star in this bower -- To-day (the wind blew, and) it swung So impudently in my face, So like a thing alive you know, I tore it from its pride of place And shook it into pieces -- so Be all ingratitude requited. The winds ran off with it delighted, And, thro' the opening left, as soon As she threw off her cloak, you moon Has sent a ray down with a tune. And this ray is a @3fairy@1 ray -- Did you not say so, Isabel? How fantastically it fell With a spiral twist and a swell, And over the wet grass rippled away With a tinkling like a bell! In my own country all the way We can discover a moon ray Which thro' some tatter'd curtain pries Into the darkness of a room, Is by (the very source of gloom) The motes, and dust, and flies, On which it trembles and lies Like joy upon sorrow! O, @3when@1 will come the morrow? Isabel! do you not fear The night and the wonders here? Dim vales! and shadowy floods! And cloudy-looking woods Whose forms we can't discover For the tears that drip all over! Huge moons -- see! wax and wane Again -- again -- again -- Every moment of the night -- Forever changing places! How they put out the starlight With the breath from their pale faces! Lo! one is coming down With its centre on the crown Of a mountain's eminence! Down -- still down -- and down -- Now deep shall be -- O deep! The passion of our sleep! For that wide circumference In easy drapery falls Drowsily over halls -- Over ruin'd walls -- Over waterfalls, (Silent waterfalls!) O'er the strange woods -- o'er the sea -- Alas! over the sea! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...OVID, OLD BUDDY, I WOULD DISCOURSE WITH YOU A WHILE by HAYDEN CARRUTH A THOUGHT FOR MOTHER'S DAY by MAMIE COLLINS BARRY THE HOUSE OF CLOUDS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE WANDERER: 2. IN FRANCE: THE LAST REMONSTRANCE by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON THE WANDERER: 5. IN HOLLAND: ON MY TWENTY-FOURTH YEAR by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON AN EPISTLE TO A FRIEND PROPOSING A CORRECTION IN PASSAGE FROM HORACE by JOHN BYROM |