Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Mortimer Collins b. 1827

A Greek Idyl

HE sat the quiet stream beside,

His white feet laving in the tide,

And watch’d the pleasant waters glide

Beneath the skies of summer.

She singing came from mound to mound,

Her footfall on the thymy ground

Unheard; his tranquil haunt she found—

That beautiful new comer.

He said—“My own Glycerium!

The pulses of the woods are dumb,

How well I knew that thou wouldst come,

Beneath the branches gliding.”

The dreamer fancied he had heard

Her footstep, whensoever stirr’d

The summer wind or languid bird

Amid the boughs abiding.

She dipp’d her fingers in the brook,

And gaz’d awhile with happy look

Upon the windings of a book

Of Cyprian hymnings tender.

The ripples to the ocean raced—

The flying minutes pass’d in haste:

His arm was round the maiden’s waist,

That waist so very slender.

O cruel Time! O tyrant Time!

Whose winter all the streams of rhyme,

The flowing waves of love sublime,

In bitter passage freezes.

I only see the scambling goat,

The lotos on the waters float,

While an old shepherd with an oat

Pipes to the autumn breezes.