Classic and Contemporary Poetry
CORFU, by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Now doth not summer's sunny smile Last Line: Alas! And is such heart mine own? Alternate Author Name(s): L. E. L.; Maclean, Letitia Subject(s): Corfu (island), Greece | ||||||||
NOW doth not summer's sunny smile Sink soft o'er that Ionian isle, While round the kindling waters sweep The murmured music of the deep, The many melodies that swell From breaking wave and red-lipped shell? Love mine! how sweet it were to leave This weary world of ours behind, And borrow from the blushing eve The wild wings of the wandering wind. Would we not flee away and find Some lonely cave beside the shore? One where a nereid dwelt of yore, And sheltered in its glistening bowers A love almost as fond as ours? A diamond spar incrusts the walls, A rainbow light from crystal falls; And musical amid the gloom, A fountain's silvery showers illume The further darkness, as with ray And song it finds its sparkling way. A natural lute and lamp, -- a tone, A light, to wilder waves unknown. The cave is curtained with the vine, And inside wandering branches twine, While from the large green leaves escape The blooming clusters of the grape; Fruit with such hyacinthine glow As southern sunbeams only know. We will not leave it till the moon Lulls with her languid look the sea; Sleep, shadow, silence for the noon; But midnight, love, to wake with thee, When the sweet myrtle-trees exhale The odors of their blossoms pale, And dim and purple colors steep Those blossoms in their perfumed sleep; Where closed are the cicala's wings, And no leaf stirs, nor wild bird sings, Lulled by the dusk air warm and sweet; Then, kneeling, dearest, at thy feet, Thy face the only sight I see, Thy voice the only sound I hear, While midnight's moonlit mystery Seems the full heart's enchanted sphere, Then should thy own low whisper tell Those ancient songs thou lovest so well; Tales of old battles which are known To me but from thy lip alone; Dearer than if the bard again Could sound his own imperial strain. Ah, folly! of such dreaming hours That are not, that may not be ours. Farewell! thou far Ionian isle That lighted for my love awhile A sweet enchantment formed to fade; Of darker days my life is made; Imbittering my reality With dreams of all that may not be. Such fairy fancies when they part But leave behind a withered heart; Dreaming o'er all it hath not known; Alas! and is such heart mine own? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A NIGHT AT CORFU by AUBREY DE VERE THE LORDSHIP OF CORFU; A LEGEND OF 1516 by PAUL HAMILTON HAYNE THE HOUSE OF ALCINOUS by HOMER CALYPSO WATCHING THE OCEAN by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON FELICIA HEMANS by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON THE CASTLE OF CHILLON by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON THE FACTORY; 'TIS AN ACCURSED THING! by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON THE FEMALE CONVICT by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON THE MARRIAGE VOW by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON A CHILD SCREENING A DOVE FROM A HAWK, BY STEWARDSON by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON A COMPARISON by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON A GIRL AT HER DEVOTIONS, BY NEWTON by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON |
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