1 BLUE eyes, but of so dark a blue That sadder souls than mine Find nought but night beneath their dew, Such locks as Proserpine Around her shadowy forehead wears, Made smoother by Elysian airs , And lips whose song spontaneous swells Like airs from Ocean's moonlit shells These, lovely child! are thine; And that forlorn yet radiant grace That best becomes thy name and race! 2 A forehead orbed into the light; Pure temples marbled round By feathery veins that streak the white, More white thus dimly wound, And taper fingers, hands self- folded, Like shapes of alabaster moulded, And cheek whose blushes are as those Aurora cools on Pindan snows Ere night is yet discrowned Not brighter, clad in Fancy's hues, Or seen in dream-an Infant Muse! 3 O fetch her from yon Naxian glade One chaplet of the Bacchic vine Or glimmering ivy-wreath yet sprayed With dews that taste like wine! She loves to pace the wild sea shore O drop her wandering fingers o'er The bosom of some chorded shell: Her touch will make it speak as well As infant Hermes made That tortoise, in its own despite Thenceforth in Heaven a shape star- bright! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A MAN CHILD IS BORN (1809) by EDGAR LEE MASTERS CORRESPONDENCES; HEXAMETERS AND PENTAMETERS by CHRISTOPHER PEARSE CRANCH THE CANDLE INDOORS by GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS THE BATTLE OF NASEBY by THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY SING-SONG; A NURSERY RHYME BOOK: 123 by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI TO MR. BLEECKER, ON HIS PASSAGE TO NEW YORK by ANN ELIZA BLEECKER |