Classic and Contemporary Poetry
JULIET AFTER THE MASQUERADE, by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: She has left the lighted hall Last Line: Beating thine unto the last! Alternate Author Name(s): L. E. L.; Maclean, Letitia Subject(s): Paintings & Painters | ||||||||
from a Picture, by Henry Thomson, Esq., R.A. Those fond, vague dreams, that make love's happiness Its first -- and oh, its last! I. She has left the lighted hall, She has flung down cap and plume, Her eye wears softer light, And her cheek a tenderer bloom: II. And her hair in sunny showers Falls o'er her marble brow, From its midnight bonds of pearl, Free as her thoughts are now. -- III. She has left the yet glad dance, O'er those gentle thoughts to brood, That haunt a girl's first hour Of love-touched solitude. IV. Music's sweet and distant sound Comes floating on the air, From the banquet-room it tells The dancers still are there: V. But she, their loveliest one, Has left the festal scene, To dream on what may be, To muse o'er what has been; VI. To think on low, soft words, Her ear had drunk that night, While her heart beat echo-like, And her cheek burnt ruby bright. VII. How beautiful she looks Beneath that moonlit sky, With her lip of living rose, Her blue and drooping eye! VIII. Spell-like, the festal scene Rises on heart and brain; Not a word, and not a look, But she lives them o'er again. IX. Well, dream thy dream, fair girl! Tho' ne'er did morning close, With its cold and waking light, Dreams fair and false as those: X. They are like the mists that rise At day-break to the sky, There, touched by all bright hues, On its breast awhile they lie; XI. But the darker hour draws on, The rose-tint disappears, And the falling cloud returns To its native earth in tears. -- To its native earth in tears. -- XII. Yet dream thy dream, fair girl! Tho' away it will be driven, 'Tis something to have past A single hour in heaven. XIII. Tho' thine eye has April light, Tho' thy cheek has April bloom There is that upon them both Which marks an early tomb. XIV. So young, so fair, to die -- And can those words be true? Ah! better far 'to die,' Than live as some must do; XV. With a heart that will not break, Though every nerve be strained, Whether won to be betrayed, Or discovered and disdained: -- XVI. For Love to watch Hope's grave, And yet itself breathe on, Like the blighted flower which lives, Tho' scent and bloom be gone. XVII. But this watching each last leaf, Green on the fading tree, The while we see it wither, Is maiden not for thee. XVIII. One hour of passionate joy, And one of passionate grief -- A morning and a midnight -- Fill up thy life's short leaf! XIX. Short, sad, but still how much Of death's bitterness is past, Thy last sigh breathed upon the heart, Beating thine unto the last! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...1801: AMONG THE PAPERS OF THE ENVOY TO CONSTANTINOPLE by RICHARD HOWARD VENETIAN INTERIOR, 1889 by RICHARD HOWARD THERE IS A GOLD LIGHT IN CERTAIN OLD PAINTINGS by DONALD JUSTICE DUTCH INTERIORS by JANE KENYON INVITATION TO A PAINTER: 3 by WILLIAM ALLINGHAM THE CHINA PAINTERS by TED KOOSER ELEGY FOR SOL LEWITT by ANN LAUTERBACH ON THE SEPARATION OF ADAM AND EVE by TIMOTHY LIU CALYPSO WATCHING THE OCEAN by LETITIA ELIZABETH LANDON |
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